Frequently Asked Questions

Between each pair of spinal bones is a disc. The outer ring holds a jelly-like material that helps with joint movement. The way it is attached to the spinal bone above and below, it can’t actually slip. It can bulge, tear herniate, dry out and collapse.

A pinched nerve is rare. It is more likely that an adjacent bone irritates, stretches or rubs a nerve. These subluxations distort the nerve messages sent between the brain and the body. This can produce unhealthy alterations to the organs and tissues connected by the affected nerves.

Physical causes can include slips, falls, accidents, repetitive motions, and improper lifting. Emotions such as grief, anger, and fear can also cause subluxations. Chemical causes could include alcohol, drugs and poor diet.

Chiropractic adjustments are usually a quick thrust that helps add motion to spinal joints that aren’t moving right. There are different methods that include the use of the doctor’s hands, an instrument, a special table or the force of gravity.

Yes, adjustments are about 100 times safer than taking over-the-counter pain relievers or getting surgery. A thorough exam can identify if a person might not be suitable for chiropractic.

Lubricating fluids separate the bones of each spinal joint. Some adjustments produce a sound when the gas and fluids in the joint shift.

No, each patient’s spine and care plan is unique. Each patient’s care is customized for his or her age, condition and health goals.

The number of adjustments varies with each patient and their goals. Within a few weeks of frequent adjustments, patients see progress. Visits will become less often as your spine stabilizes. In chronic cases, complete healing will take months to years.

Studies show that colic, unusual crying, poor appetite, ear infections or erratic sleeping habits can be signs of spinal distress.

Yes, the chiropractor will avoid surgically modified areas. Surgery usually causes instability above or below the area involved. The Doctor will focus on these areas.

Yes, your chiropractor will develop a plan considering your personal circumstances. The doctor will choose a method that is best suited to your age, size, and condition.

Chiropractic Doctors do not dispense drugs. They rely on natural methods. They will show you how to properly use ice to get an analgesic effect without the side effects of drugs.

Your health affects everything you do and everyone you know. It is your most valuable possession yet each of us place a different value on it. It is convenient when the insurance pays your bill but do not allow them to make a decision for you. We will make your care affordable by giving you a specific payment plan depending on your needs.

If we are not able to correct the cause of the problem, we will refer you to a specialist.

Since we have three full-time chiropractors on staff five days a week, it’s pretty easy to get an appointment here. We’re always willing to accept patients, and we’re always willing to go out of our way to make sure that we can accommodate people who need to be here.

Throughout my years of being a Chiropractor, it’s been an incredible story. I’ve seen so many people come in with just back pain and neck pain, and come out with some miracles. We had one couple when I first started and they were trying to have a baby. And for many years, they’ve been going through shots and injections all through the medical procedure. The next thing you know, they haven’t done anything for months. The one thing that did change was Chiropractic care.

The adjustment is incomplete … The adjustment is so powerful. Many people don’t realize that when you’re adjusted, it affects the quality and condition of your brain. More and more studies show now, after an adjustment the brain is powered up by up to 20% in your pre-frontal cortex. And that’s known for higher thinking, better balance, spatial awareness, immunity, less stress, better memory retention, and regurgitation. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

More and more people are gonna start to see that when they get adjusted, their body can perform optimally. Another condition, which one patient came in with, was just neck pain. And throughout her three months of coming here, she was asking me questions. Does the adjustment help me sleep better, does the adjustment help reduce stress, does the adjustment help her immunity? And, all of these questions were yeses. And this patient noticed not only did her neck pain reduce, but she was living a life that she’s been searching for all these years. And, the answer was Chiropractic care.

From time to time we’ll get a complaint that’s unrelated to neck or back, so the patient things. So numbness and tingling in the hands, not uncommon for some people, but they don’t know how to deal with it because it’s a hand problem they think. I don’t have neck pain, but my hand’s numb, especially at night, or it wakes me up during the night, or in the morning I’ve got to shake it loose, but it never happened before.

So based on our consultation and the history, when we do a thermal scan, if we see the nerve is hot in the neck, and we can see that on the camera, we know the nerve from the neck runs down the arm. Maybe that’s the beginning of the hand numbness, is the beginning of a degenerative condition, or a loss of curve in the neck. Because as chiropractors we look at curves, we look at the normal structure, because we know that structure determines function. If you’re not functioning that well, structurally, something’s got to be wrong. Let us find the cause of the problem, and let us come up with helping you with a solution.

The pro adjuster is a computerized instrument where it does a detailed analysis using piezoelectric cells that are in the ends of the instrument, and we can analyze the spine and find different areas where there are restrictions or where there’s a lot of muscle, and then we can go in and use the same instrument to adjust that specific area.

The Activator is a hand-held instrument. A lot of the patients call it like a clicker, all right? What it does is it’s a very light force because it’s high speed, and you’re able to really get into areas that might be a little bit tougher with other techniques. You can get in there and you can adjust the specific areas of the spine.

For some patients, they need that light touch. You still get the same outcome, but it’s just a different approach.

The best way to schedule an appointment is call our front desk and we’ll verify your insurance and get you scheduled promptly. We do accept walk-ins, however, if you want to expedite your time within our office it’s best that you call. We can fax you our paperwork, we can email our paperwork, or even send you a copy through the mail.

Sacral occipital technique is a technique where you use blocks. They’re padded blocks and basically after we do a specific analysis on the spine we would use the appropriate blocking technique. It’s all  light force. Your body does the adjusting itself. It takes about five to 10 minutes to do and the results are fantastic.

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How long does it take for any condition? If we’re talking about headaches or any type of pain the
question that we’re used to handling is, “Doctor, how long will it take for me to get better?” And I wish I had a crystal ball or I wish I had a magic wand to say, “In your case it’s going to take this exact number of visits,” but everybody is different. So, we take into effect different criteria. How long have you had the problem? What is your age? What is your occupation? What is your weight? And these are certain criteria. Is there arthritic or degenerative changes that we see on film that’s going to slow the process down? What do you do when you’re not in the office? If we’re doing a corrective chiropractic adjustment to take the pressure off the nerve, to improve the body’s ability to heal itself, so what happens when you go out and maybe you’re eating fast food, too much coffee, alcohol, maybe smoking, maybe not getting enough water? So, we take that into consideration also. What is your lifestyle?

So, headaches have many different variabilities. Sleep is a factor. Position of sleep, posture. We spend so much time on our devices and our computers that we choke off the nerve supply by forward head posture. So, all this is a factor, and it can take dozens of visits or it can take just a few. Everybody is an individual.

A lot of patients will ask and it definitely is on a case by case basis. We don’t do cookbook care. We take everything into consideration, the patient’s age, their health status, their weight, there’s just so many different variables for each patient. So, we wanna do more individualized care, as opposed to just the same care for everybody. Yes.

Absolutely not. That’s why we do a detailed history, comprehensive exam, and we do X-rays so that we can find out what the cause is. But there are different causes for back pain.

You can have injuries to the kidneys, you can have some sort of pathology, there are a lot of different things that can give you what we call referred pain to the back, that are not necessarily originating in the spine.

Okay, number one, we look for the cause and most other specialties do not. They treat symptoms and that’s not what we to do here. We find the cause of what’s going on and when you remove the  cause, most of the time you’re gonna get rid of the symptoms. Once the symptoms are gone, then we can go for stability and then once the stability … When we get stability, then we go for maintenance.

Coming to this office, South Orange Chiropractic Center, we look for the most natural and efficient and effective form of care to help relieve a patient’s symptoms. One of the key distinctions we make is: Are we treating the pain, or are we treating the problem? Many patients come to us that have had their pain treated, head pain, back pain, neck pain and they’re chasing with the chemistry. They’re putting drugs into the body. If this drug doesn’t work, try this drug. If this doesn’t work, try this one. Well, here, we want to find the cause. If we can’t find the cause, we’re not going to start treatment. So, the object of our first visit is to determine “does the patient belong here?” If we do, we tell you. If not, we’re not going to waste your time or our time. But the key is finding the cause of the problem. Once we treat the cause, the symptoms go away.

That’s a good question, and we have those same questions, too. The first question we have is, is this patient going to respond? And we have to take in all the information we get from our examination. We have a reasonable degree of certainty that if we accept you as a patient, you’re going to get your desired results. Remember, the first visit here determines, do you belong here or not. Maybe there’s another specialty that would come into play to help you with your problem. So, if a patient doesn’t respond in a reasonable time frame, that’s why we do periodic re-evaluations. When we do the thermal scan in the beginning to find out where the hot spots are, we’re going to redo that again in 30 days. If it’s not changing, or getting better on our hard core documentation and testing … Guess what? We’re not going to continue treating. We’re going to find out what the problem is, where it is, and maybe what specialty should come into play.

Maybe we need a dentist, maybe it’s a specialized TMJ issue. Maybe there is a visual problem and we have to get an eye doctor involved. Maybe there is a neurological problem. Maybe if we see something on X-ray, which we’ve done many times, we’ll send out for an MRI to get more clarity of what the problem is, and now we have knowledge, because knowledge is power, and we can help direct you get the fastest results, in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of specialties.

Once we accurately diagnose somebody with a shoulder injury, we’re going to use either chiropractic care, physical therapy, or acupuncture to get the best results.

Yes, we have an acupuncturist.

Every patient who comes into our office with a shoulder condition wants to be out of pain overnight.
Most commonly it takes about two to four weeks to get somebody out of discomfort, increase their range of motion, and get the relief that they want. What’s most important is the patient who’s typically searching for answers has to realize that the condition didn’t start overnight and it’s going to take some time to heal, which is the body’s natural response. As soon as we get care going, the patient will notice