Chiropractic care is a safe, natural, and effective way to treat conditions and injuries affecting the muscles, joints, ligaments and nerves of the body, particularly as they relate to the spine.

Treatment is, of course, initially aimed at addressing the issue that brings you to your chiropractor in the first place. This can be pain or discomfort, restriction of mobility, pinched nerves, headaches, etc. Once the symptoms have resolved or improved to a good and stable level, then there is the option of chiropractic maintenance care. This is where you can come in from time to time for a check up and an ‘adjustment’ (or treatment). This is similar to regular check-ups at the dentist.

Naturally, this is optional, however a majority of patients choose this service. Your chiropractor can assess where tension has built up in the joints, muscles or around the nerves. These areas are treated to prevent the build up of tension becoming a problem and to reduce the likelihood of the initial injury re-occurring. Joints are kept flexible, muscles are kept loose, nerves remain free of irritation. People will often refer to this as ‘their MOT’. The body functions better, feels more comfortable and patients often report ‘feeling better in themselves’, for this reason this type of care is also referred to as ‘wellness care’.

People who may benefit from this type of maintenance care are those who have experienced chronic recurrent injuries; those with particularly physical, repetitive or heavy jobs that put a lot of strain on the spine; those with jobs where it is difficult to maintain a good, natural posture such as drivers, nurses, carers, office workers and teachers. Maintenance care can be useful if there are underlying conditions that ‘encourage’ tension to build up the body, such as stress and anxiety, arthritis, or permanent mechanical issues such as a scoliosis, joint hyperflexibility, or curvature of the spine caused by osteoporosis. Professional and amateur sportspeople and those interested in healthy living increasingly see chiropractic maintenance care as part of a routine to improve or maintain peak body performance.

So a great number of people may find they can benefit from maintenance care. In some cases it can be less useful, for example an uncomplicated issue that fully resolves and a healthy lifestyle makes it less likely that the problem will re-occur. Additionally if an issue does not improve or worsens it would then be appropriate to be referred onwards for further investigations.

So the option is there for those who have had chiropractic treatment and a majority of patients choose these regular check-ups. If you think that you could benefit too from this type of maintenance/ wellness/ MOT care then call in and speak to our chiropractor.