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Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers Answers "How Long Until I Feel Better?"

Your experience with pain is not like anyone else, so your relief time is individual as well. With this in mind, published clinical outcomes can give you insight into what to expect with Baton Rouge chiropractic care.

General Healing Time

  • Bones tend to mend rather quickly if they have a good blood supply: 5-6 weeks.
  • Ligament and tendons take a little longer: 6-8 weeks.
  • Discs and cartilage take the longest: 3 months or more.

If you have a mixture of these factors, it may take some time. If you smoke, drink alcohol or have a surgical procedure, your healing time may be a bit longer as well.

Disc Healing Time

It takes 3 months to heal a disc before you assume to go about your activities of daily living like an extended amount of sitting, bending, lifting and twisting. (1) Like a broken arm that quits hurting after a few days in a cast, you still have to wear the cast for many weeks to allow healing. Your back will also quit hurting early on in the treatment care plan, but you will have to allow your disc to heal for at least 3 months before testing it with more demanding activities. "Giving ample time of the disc to heal" chiropractic activities may include simply keeping in mind that you are mending even though you don't experience pain, doing your exercises, avoiding bending/lifting/twisting, not sitting for extended periods of time, etc.

Your Expected Healing Time

Cox Technic chiropractic protocols follow a "Rule of 50%" and emphasize "Control, Not Cure" for spine pain relief:

  • At each point that you demonstrate 50% relief of pain (objectively and subjectively -- mind you it may come within the first visit or two), your chiropractic treatment sessions are cut in half. (ex: If you are seen daily, you would be seen once every two days.) Link to Frequency of Visits
  • If you don't have 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care, you will be referred for more testing or consultation. 91% of patients reported alleviation within 90 days. Link to Expectations
  • Cox Technic Flexion Distraction and Decompression protocols also embrace the phrase "Control, Not Cure" when dealing with spine pain symptoms. So often the underlying source of pain doesn't just go away. For example, a transitional segment is with you for life. Cox Technic chiropractic procedures work hard to aid your understanding of your pain condition and its triggers in order to prevent pain episodes.

Clinical Data Outcomes

Cox Technic protocols are published standards as they gave direction for the collection of data from 30 chiropractic clinics regarding 1,000 low back pain patient cases, the first and largest collection of its kind in chiropractic. Two-hundred ninety-three (293) different variables were gathered from and/or about each patient regarding the patient and his/her condition, history, care, outcomes. (2) This case study brought to light the number of days to maximum improvement (100% relief of pain, 3 months of care, or return to pre-injury state) and the number of visits to maximum improvement.

  • The mean number of days is 29.
  • The number of visits is 12.

However, some conditions do need more days and chiropractic visits. When conditions are taken into account, the results vary. Examples:

L5 disc herniation

  • 86% were maximally improved in less than 3 months
  • 64% required fewer than 20 visits
  • 70% required fewer than 30 visits

Lumbar Sprain/Strain

  • 91% were maximally improved in less than 3 months
  • 71% required fewer than 20 visits
  • 91% required fewer than 30 visits
Reference
  1. Hirschberg G: Treating Lumbar Disc Lesion by Prolonged Continuous Reduction of Intradiscal Pressure. Texas Medicine 1974; vol. 70: 58-68

  2. Cox, JM, Feller JA, Cox JA: Distraction Chiropractic Adjusting: Clinical Application, Treatment Algorithms, and Clinical Outcomes of 1000 Cases Studied. Topics in Clinical Chiropractic 1996; (3)3:45-59, 79-81