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WHY REHABILITATION Treatment for chronic back and neck pain fall into 2 basic categories: 1. The type that can still be treated to resolution or no pain. 2. The type that the pain can be reduced but has to be managed. The type of problem that can be resolved is usually due to improper biomechanics or use of the spine by the muscles. How this happens is a slow process over time. You get an injury to, as an example, your neck. because you get pain with movement in a certain direction you try to avoid that direction. As the pain starts to go away, it still hurts to move it in exactly the way it used to go so you modify the motion so it doesn't hurt. By modifying the motion, you use different muscles to make it move. Over time, it becomes a habit to do it this way. Then, when the pain goes away you continue to use it incorrectly. The substituted muscles you use to move the joints in your neck become developed and strong. Then they begin to put different stresses on your bones than the bones were made to have. The motion is not normal so you get abnormal wear and tear on the joints. As a result, it starts getting irritated again. You modify motion again and over time the same thing happens so that over a long period of time, even if you do not get another injury, your neck gets worse and worse. In this case the rehabilitation specialists will evaluate you for strength and how you use your muscles in motion. The treatment will focus on reestablishing normal use, motion and strength in efforts to make it work correctly. Again, in this way the incorrect pressure and muscle use is reversed and as a result, the problem goes away. The type that has to be managed, are those injuries that have become permanent. There is scar tissue in muscles, tendons, ligaments or disks that become degenerated. There is another way a problem can fall into this category. If an injury can be resolved is left untreated for such a long period of time that it continues to be re-injured and becomes permanent. Your joints and other supporting structure and tissues can only take so much wear and tear before they break down. In these cases where a problem is permanent, the Chiropractor with a rehabilitation background will evaluate the muscles and joints to find which tissues have been damaged. Then direct and assist you in strengthening and returning function to them so they can last longer in your daily activities, cause less pain, and prevent long term wear and tear on other nearby tissues and joints. Management of chronic injuries is not a doctor alone effort! The injury and now chronic problem will never be back to 100% again. There will be specific exercises and stretches that you will need to do as maintenance regularly to maintain the advances you have accomplished with the doctor. Try not to think of them as something that will take up your time to do. Think of them as those activities that will keep you doing all the things you are now able to do. |
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