It simply depends on the nature of your problem. Some find relief in chiropractic care, while others find working with a physical therapist to be helpful. Take, for example, your back is stiff and you feel restricted in your movement - medication and exercises have been of no help, then what do you do? You see a chiropractor because there is a high chance that your spinal cord is out of alignment and a simple adjustment will fix the issue.
On the other hand, if your back hurts due to a previous injury, a physical therapist will be able to help you by prescribing your movement exercises. Most chiropractors now use a holistic approach, while others simply treat your back pain to treat the short-term issue.
So which chiropractor you choose to work with is important. Are Chiropractors and physical therapists Doctors? Chiropractors, on the other hand, obtain a four-year Doctor of Chiropractic DC degree followed by a year of extensive training.
How many sessions are required? Both chiropractic care and physical therapy are similar in the sense that they require multiple and recurring sessions to completely heal. With that said, how long a treatment will last depends on the complexity of the problem as well as the speed with which the patient is able to recover naturally. As far as the time, it depends on the nature of the condition; a typical session can last between 30 minutes and an hour. Initial appointments usually last longer, but with time as the body starts healing, the duration and frequency of the sessions decreases.
Are there any side effects of physical therapy and chiropractic care? Just like any other form of treatment, physical therapy and chiropractic care both have side effects. These side effects are usually physical due to the physical nature of the treatment and can range from slight pain and soreness in muscle, slight bruising, swelling and inflammation. These symptoms usually subside within a few to 48 hours. Physical therapists perform various physical exercises, thus exacerbating the pain.
Similarly, patients can feel a little sore in the muscles after a chiropractic treatment. It is important to mention that like any medical treatment, physical therapy and chiropractic care do not guarantee complete or quick recovery. In fact, as mentioned before, it requires multiple sessions to start seeing results.
As you prepare to earn a graduate degree in healthcare, you may be wondering: should I become a chiropractor or a physical therapist? What's the difference, and which is a better fit for my career goals? We can help unpack the differences between the two professions, offer some advice for how to choose, and highlight some of the specialties you can focus on when deciding to earn your Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Northeast College of Health Sciences.
Explore Chiropractic Program. Chiropractic care focuses on all things neuromusculoskeletal — specifically, diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the spine and joints. Chiropractors work with their patients to assess their overall health status through physical exams; analysis of spine and extremity joint health, posture, and neurologic health; proper nutrition to support optimal health; teaching patients how to reduce and better handle stress; tests, including x-rays; neuromusculoskeletal therapy; and much more.
By considering the patient's full-body health and improving joint motion in spinal and other joints over the course of multiple visits, chiropractors often use hands-on means to alleviate pain and improve health without patients needing to rely on medication or pursue surgeries.
As well, chiropractors also sometimes use tools such as ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, laser therapy and more to treat their patients. While chiropractic work is more focused on the whole person addressing not just neuromusculoskeletal health but also how to foster optimal health through diet and nutrition, exercise, and stress management , physical therapy is focused more on joint function alone.
Chiropractors assess each patient and determine how best to adjust their bodies to provide relief. Patients may even find that they will receive unique treatments from one visit to the next. Additionally, multiple studies have found that chiropractic care rarely creates any long-term side effects and that the potential benefits for healing low back and neck pain outweigh any risks.
Immediate Restorative Health: Many patients who see chiropractors report feeling immediate or near-immediate relief from their chronic pain. Undergoing spinal adjustments can help to alleviate pressure from nerves and muscles, which reduces the pain. Chiropractic adjustments can also have an immediate impact on mobility, coordination and function. Physiotherapy focuses on long-term support and restoration of your overall health and mobility.
By seeing a physiotherapist for your back or neck injury, you can obtain the following health benefits:. Rehabilitation and Recovery: For patients who have suffered an injury or illness, physiotherapy can be a great, personalized way to rehabilitate your body and recover faster.
Injury Prevention: Because physiotherapy focuses on strengthening and rehabilitating the body, the result is that the patient becomes stronger, increasing the ability to prevent future injury. Physiotherapists will identify issues and patterns in their patients and develop a care plan to avoid long-term problems. Reduced Need for Surgery and Medication: Many physicians today will refer their patients to physiotherapists before administering conventional medical treatment.
Chiropractic care and physiotherapy are only two of several complementary therapies available to help you restore your health and prevent future injuries. Additionally, you may find that incorporating both therapies into your personal wellness plan can benefit you. Or you may feel that one therapy is a better choice for you over the other. Physiotherapy wins this round of comparison between physiotherapy vs chiropractic therapy because it focuses on a wide range of problems, from sports-related injuries to weakness caused by strokes.
Therapists who practice physiotherapy are trained to do many of the same things chiropractic therapists can do, including manipulating the spine and releasing painfully tight muscles. The debate between physiotherapy vs chiropractic therapy has a clear winner when it comes to knowledge, because well-trained therapists who practice physiotherapy are able to perform a variety of techniques.
These techniques include acupuncture, acupressure, and physiotherapy exercises that stabilize your core. A therapist trained in physiotherapy can also build a specialized program that will help you exercise and enjoy sports again. Unlike chiropractic therapists, physiotherapists also put a strong emphasis on comprehensive therapeutic techniques that will make your body stronger and healthier.
Make sure you send time finding the best physical therapist in your area — it can make a big difference. Although many chiropractic therapists focus on multiple areas of the human body other than the spine, chiropractic therapists as a whole use manipulation of the skeleton and muscles as their primary method of treating injuries.
In some cases, chiropractic therapists only use manipulation and no other treatment techniques. Therapists who practice physiotherapy know much more about the way the body works and treat it as a whole instead of focusing on just one region, even if that one region does tend to have a significant effect on the rest of the body.
Therapists who practice physiotherapy have been trained to recognize a variety of conditions and injuries, and this knowledge helps them treat injuries or weaknesses that you might not have known existed. Because chiropractors usually focus on spinal issues, they do not tend to look at the whole picture to find out if anything else is wrong. Unfortunately, in some cases, going to a chiropractor instead of a physiotherapy clinic can result in worsened or additional injuries.
This is especially true of chiropractors who focus more on muscle and skeletal manipulation than any other technique. Some patients do not respond well to these techniques.
On the other hand, physiotherapy often relies on ultrasounds to examine injuries, sore spots, and weaknesses prior to applying treatment. Even if you do have a spinal injury, physiotherapy is frequently a better option because of the variety of ways a therapist who practices physiotherapy will examine you to make sure nothing else is contributing to the problem.
Because of the technology available to physiotherapists, physiotherapy wins this round of the debate between physiotherapy vs chiropractic therapy as well. The debate between physiotherapy vs chiropractic has a clear winner when you remember that a therapist who practices physiotherapy can do everything a chiropractor can and more. Becoming a therapist who practices physiotherapy is an arguably more difficult process, which acts as a form of quality control.
This is also important when it comes to getting insured for physiotherapy ; because of the training to become licensed, physiotherapy tends to have better coverage from insurance companies.
In nearly all cases, patients are better off with a therapist who practices physiotherapy than they are with a chiropractic clinic. You can still make an argument for chiropractic care, though, so have a look at our argument why chiropractic care is better than physiotherapy. There will never be a consensus on which is better and really in the end it is up to the consumer.
Some interesting points you bring up here, but also some pretty broad generalizations about both physical therapy and chiropractic. Physical therapists, by name are therapists.
This means they do not diagnosis conditions. This is why they cannot write scripts for x-rays. Just because it is a state law providing open access, that state law does not govern insurance company compliance. Chiropractors on the other hand are not therapists. They are trained as doctors, trained to diagnose, and trained to know when to refer and when not to refer.
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