Your First Visit

What we ask

• Upon making your first appointment our specially trained Chiropractic Assistants (receptionists) will ask you a few very important questions regarding your condition and the reason for you taking the first steps.
• Knowing about your condition and severity helps us guide you to the best Chiropractor for you needs.
  
  

What to bring

• If you have any spinal X-rays or scans (even if they are old) they may be useful to help create the big picture. So bring them along.

What to do

• Our specially trained Chiropractic Assistants will ask you about your current pain management. They may give you advice on any changes you need to take before the first consultation. Pain management like Panadol will be masking the symptoms and not addressing the cause of the problem. Pain killers can severely change the findings we use to make important decisions such as pain findings and localised swelling.

Arrival

• You will be given an arrival time which includes the required time to fill in the appropriate paper work.
• Our friendly Chiropractic Assisstants will greet you and kindly explain the New Patient Admission. We ask a lot of questions on the form, this is because we not only want to know about your primary complaint, but also about other issues you may have that may relate to the spine. Traumas, accidents, and injuries are all things that we need to know about as they can often be the cause of your spinal problems even years before you get the symptoms you are having today.

Resting

• It is ideal that you rest and relax in the waiting room while waiting for your appointment. This is to help calm and settle the muscles around your spine and pelvis. Resting these muscles helps you receive your spinal adjustment easier when it is time for you appointment. So sit back, read a magazine, or have some herbal tea of the day.

Getting Ready

• One of our Chiropractic Assistants will show you around to a private changing cubical. This is where you will get ready for your appointment. This will be explained to you at the time by the Chiropractic Assistants. Our Chiropractors use a very particular form of Chiropractic where accuracy and precision are of the upmost importance. Checking the spine without the interference of clothing is the best way to get all the required information.

History

• Your Chiropractor will ask you further questions in relation to your pain/problems. The better we can understand your pain, the better we will know where the cause is coming from. Tell your Chiropractor everything about your condition, even if you think it is a small, insignificant comment.

Examination

• Your Chiropractor will then do a series of examinations, or checks, of your spine. From checking the temperature, looking for swelling, individual movement of vertebral segments, through to relevant orthopaedic and neurological assessments.

X-rays

• Most adult new patients will require specialty full spine x-rays. These are performed straight way on site for immediate assessment in your first appointment, saving you time and trouble.
• X-rays are taken for many reasons:
  • Disease – We look for any evidence of severe illness that may need medical treatment (some serious illness can refer as back pain).
  • Trauma – Looking for any evidence of trauma, sometimes trauma you forgot to mention.
  • Presence of Wear and Tear – This helps with the big picture in understanding how long your problem has been hiding for and how it is effecting the rest of your spine.
  • Spinal Misalignments –  Evidence of poorly aligned vertebra can be observed. We can use this information to help create a plan of where to start and what needs to be fixed next.

Results

• After all the evidence from the assessments has been put together and everything has been explained to you, your Chiropractor will explain how they are going to fix your problem. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you need.

Adjustment

• Then you will receive a very accurate, calculated, specifically delivered correction (spinal adjustment) to your problem area. This is surprisingly painless and only takes a split second. Most new patients are nicely surprised and comment “was that it?” We take the time to figure out the one vertebra that is causing your problem, so there is much less of the ‘cracking’ noise than you would expect.
• Your Chiropractor may then give you some simple exercises to perform after you adjustment. This might be as straightforward as going for a 5 minutes walk after your adjustment.

Instructions

• Your Chiropractor will give you some simple instructions to follow after your first visit. It is important to follow these recommendations.
• You will most likely need a follow up appointment, your Chiropractor will instruct you if and when you need to come back.

Response

• You are likely to feel immediately better after your first adjustment. Taking the pressure off the nerve for the first time can give you tremendous relief. But you may also experience some extra swelling or feel a little “adjustment sore” after your first visit. This will settle down over the first two days.
• Each visit will build on the last. You will continue to improve after each adjustment and you will be back to optimal health in no time.
• We operate by the motto “Find it, Fix it, and Leave it alone”. This means we take pride in our work and aim to have you ‘back to normal’ as quick as possible. This means we usually see massive changes in our patients in just 4-6 visits, as compared to the state average chiropractic industry standard of 30-40 visits.