Frequently Asked Questions
The short answer to this question… is no. Like working out at a gym or brushing your teeth, chiropractic care is not addictive. You can choose to stop at any time. Because our body is made of parts- like a car or a computer- we are designed to break down. Our health is not static. You cannot simply hit a certain level and maintain. This is due to the presence of stress in our lives, physical, mental, and chemical. For this reason, many people choose to continue with care after initial corrective program to optimize and maintain their results. As with anything, if you stop cold turkey, the benefits you received from your hard work will deteriorate and disappear. An exercise program is a great example. If you work out 3 times per week for 12 weeks- at the end of that period, you should notice some great results. If you then decided to stop working out entirely, the improvements you experienced will decrease and deteriorate until they are no longer present. This same phenomenon occurs in the nervous system and tissues surrounding the spine. However, if you in this example were to graduate up from 3 workouts to 1 workout per week, you will still experience positive growth and adapting, just at a slower pace that will serve more to offset your daily stressors.
Until we meet you and fully understand the specifics of the case, the simple answer is… we do not know. In our office, we believe that everyone should have access to a health assessment and examination. However, not everyone is a good fit for receiving chiropractic care the way we provide it. The first step is to undergo a comprehensive interview, examination, and assessment so that we can decide if care at Treehive is the best fit for you. If an issue is found within your spine and nervous system and you do not just want symptomatic relief- but are seeking full correction, there is a high likelihood that we will be able to help you. In the event that your examination reveals no problems with your spine or nervous system, or we find issues beyond the scope of our ability to help you and/or co-managing your case is found to be ideal, our team will immediately refer you to one of our power partner providers in our community (massage, physical therapist, naturopath, acupuncturist, trainer, etc).
Here is a list of health issues that have improved under consistent chiropractic care in our practice:
- Fatigue
- Neck pain
- Joint Pain
- Headaches
- Sinus Problems
- Spinal Issues
- Pelvic Problems
- Sciatica
- Digestive Issues
- Sleeping Trouble
- Allergies
- Menstrual Discomfort
- Decreased Libido
- Hormonal Imbalances
- Various Neurological Disorders
- And many more…
Let us be very clear… chiropractic care did NOT cure these conditions. In each of these cases, the health challenge was directly or indirectly related to the spine and nervous system which was then detected and corrected via the adjustments. A side effect of improved structure and neurological function is natural healing and recovery which will lead to increased body system health, growth, and repair.
In order to make sure we can help you; our new patient interview is always complementary. Any exams and additional testing can carry an added cost depending on your individual needs. This could range anywhere from $50-$250 depending on the extensiveness of what our doctors will require. We also offer a completely complimentary insurance benefits check on your initial visit. If you have adequate health insurance chiropractic care coverage (a majority of our practice members have high deductible plans or do not have the necessary coverage) our team can easily bill services to your insurance provider.
No matter how you approach it- insurance has become a very confusing concept. It has been consistently changing and modified to a point of extreme difference, even just in the past 10 years.
We know how difficult it can be to discover what your insurance will and will not pay for (especially considering that your insurance relationship manager will give you entirely different information than they will tell us on the back-office side of things), so we have written out the thought process you need can easily adopt in order to best understand insurance as it is currently constructed in modern society. The purpose of insurance is to help you in case of an emergency. In this case, health emergencies. While it is true that some insurance companies will cover a few visits to the chiropractor, the overwhelming majority of insurance plans we see in our office do not, or they do not cover anywhere near the care needed to help correct the cause of your health challenge. However, for this example let us assume that you have some health insurance coverage for chiropractic care.
Typically, your coverage will include a small number of visits. You may first have to reach your deductible, and/or be required to make a co-pay that goes with each visit. If you have already met your deductible, or your co-pay is low enough, and you want to use your insurance, the number of visits you get from your insurance will most likely help to relieve some of the symptoms- but only temporarily. You are also given a set amount of care/money you can receive each year. This care/money you receive from your insurance company is not based on what the doctor clinically deems necessary (or we would get every single visit covered for you!) Nor is it based on what your health history requires for your personal needs. Insurance plans are not set up for any corrective care. This means that after the visits that are covered by your insurance company are used, the root cause of your symptoms will likely still be present and active under the surface. You may not have the symptoms or discomfort to the level that you were experiencing before, but it will only be a matter of time before the root cause creates more breakdowns that will again contribute to health issues.
At Treehive, our main goal is creating long-lasting correction by improving the root cause of your health challenges so it is no surprise why our recommendations would not match up with what your insurance provides. Our goals are drastically different. Please understand, insurance as it is currently constructed is designed for an emergency, to get you out of trouble. Insurance is not there to provide you with true correction, much less lifestyle care. Think of it like car insurance. Useful in case of an accident or major incident, but not good for rotating your tires or getting the oil changed… the everyday things you need to do to keep your car running in the everyday.
To summarize, Americans are typically on their own if they want to keep and stay healthy on an everyday basis. Our approach to insurance is this… if you have a few visits covered, fantastic! Look at it as a bonus towards your health- but if we expect insurance to cover all costs, we will always end up disappointed. For most of you who don’t have the ability to utilize insurance, it shouldn’t keep you from taking control of your health and creating a better life and future for yourself.
Healthy kids grow up to be healthy teenagers which then easily continue to keep a high quality of life as they become healthy adults. Sick kids become sick teenagers which then have the most difficult time trying to fix their broken health as sick adults. As the twig bends, so grows the tree.
One of the first instances where there can be pressure applied to the spine and nervous system is during birth. Even in its most natural state, the birthing process is extremely stressful on mom and baby both. As the baby comes through the birth canal or especially if removed forcibly via c-section, there’s significant pressure on the head and neck area that the baby endures. It then goes without saying that stress will continue as baby grows with all the slips, crashes, and falls they will sustain throughout their early years.
These traumas can cause shifting and under the surface issues in the spine and nervous system just like in an adult. Since a baby is experiencing such rapid growth, it is even more critical to make sure the nervous system is functioning in an optimum state. Since their nervous systems are not fully developed, they will not experience all the aches, pains, and symptoms that we would if encountering the same traumas on a regular basis.
The adjustment for a child is extremely different from that of an adult or teenager. It is extremely gentle, using only the doctor’s fingertip or an adjusting instrument, both of which producing the same amount of pressure to an affected area as you would use to see if a tomato or avocado is ripe enough for purchase. This gentle pressure will encourage a fixated vertebra to release and will improve nerve function as a result.
Many parents we serve realize if they are getting their spine and nervous system cleared routinely, their children should be as well. Therefore, the vast majority of the children we see have no health challenges or surface issues- and they get to stay that way!