What To Expect On Your First Visit

Intake Paperwork

You will be warmly welcomed and made to feel at home. Help is on its way!

You will be warmly welcomed and made to feel at home. Help is on its way!

The first thing that new patients handle is the paperwork. This is no different than in any other doctor’s office. With the intake paperwork, you describe the problems you’ve been having. Additionally, you review your past medical history (including any traumas, surgeries, infections and other medical problems).

The new patient forms can be filled out when you show up for your first visit. Or if you prefer, you can get the forms before you come in for your first visit via downloading them from this website. One of the benefits of getting the forms ahead of time is that it will reduce the time of your first visit. When you come in, we can go straight to the consultation (no waiting!).

Insurance Verification

If you have health insurance, please bring your insurance card with you. We will make a photocopy, and then our billing department will be happy to verify benefits and eligibility.

Consultation & Case History

Once your intake paperwork has been completed, you will then have a five to twenty minute consultation with the Doctor. The consultation is where you get to tell the us what has been going on, where you’ve been hurting, how long you’ve had the problem, describe the severity and quality of the pain, what makes it better or worse, and other therapies that you’ve already tried. The Doctor will review your past medical history with you, and also review your work, social and family health history. We believe in doing a thorough case history because it can give us clues about the nature and cause of the problem. It is a very important component in forming an accurate diagnosis.

Examination

Our primary goal is to objectively evaluate all the involved tissues (bones, muscles, joints, the neurology, etc…) in order to discover what exactly is wrong. This will then enable us to render the most accurate diagnosis possible. And from there, we can prescribe a treatment plan that is specific for your unique needs. The following is what you can expect from my examination:

  • Vitals: (height, weight, blood pressure, respirations, temperature) – to establish a medical baseline.
  • Range of Motion: We check the range of motion and flexibility of your spine and neck in all planes. It gives valuable information about the health of your joints, and muscles.
  • Leg Length Check: This test involves having the patient lay face down on the examination table. We check the bottom of the feet to see if they’re aligned. If one foot is shorter than the other, it may indicate a functional short leg (which could be due to lumbo-pelvic misalignment).
  • Palpation: We palpate your muscles to check for spasms, trigger points and abnormal contractions. We also motion palpate each of the joints of your spine, in order to test the joint motion, feel for joint fixations and joints that are stuck out of place.
  • Neurological and Orthopedic Evaluation: We do these tests to check to see if you have nerve damage, or damage to your skeletal system. Special orthopedic tests also help us to tell whether the problem is coming from the muscle, from the joints, or from a disc.
  • Posture Analysis: There are over 128,000,000 different combinations of abnormal posture. We use a very specific and advanced technique to check your posture, using sixteen reference points to check for abnormal rotations (twisting & tilting) and translations (shifting) of the skull, thorax and pelvis. Postural distortions can lead to many health problems.

Report of Findings

This is a very important consultation where we review all of the clinical findings with you, explain what we found, & let you know if we can help you (or if you need to be referred to another healthcare provider). The Doctor will make his recommendations for care and handle any questions you may have. The report of findings should take about 10 minutes (longer if you have more questions). The Doctor will discus the phases of care. At the report of findings, we will answer four key questions for you:

  1. Have we found your problem (and what is it)?
  2. Can we help you (or do you need to be referred to another doctor)?
  3. What is it going to take to fix the problem?
  4. How much is it going to cost?

Start of Care

As soon as the report of findings has finished, we can start your care program. Your first clinical visit typically includes a gentle chiropractic adjustment and any therapies that the Doctor has ordered. This may include spinal adjustments, physical therapies, and/or soft tissue therapies. Treatment is interactive with you so you can express any concerns you have about the style of adjustment as it is important that you are as comfortable as possible.

The sooner you take action, the sooner we may be able to help you. Contact us and get started today!