Modalities

You've read our goals about creating motion and helping you get out of pain, and here are a few tools we utilize in the office to help that process. Scroll down to check out all the different modalities we utilize in the office. Each patient that we work with has their own unique issues and the modalities we choose to utilize are tailored specifically to everyone. We may use a combination of these, and if you're ever curious about trying a particular modality out, let us know. We are big on creating input into the body and seeing how you respond; some modalities work better than others for particular issues or ever particular patients, so as we work with you, we're trying to figure out what works best for you and your body. 

Exercises & Movement

We are big on giving people the knowledge and tools to fix themselves, and often times the result of their issues are due to moving dysfunctionally. By focussing on and working through corrective movement patterns, we tend to see great results immediately in the office after just a few repetitions, and simultaneously have given the patient a tool to help themselves at home outside of the office. 

If a problem is due to chronic movement patterns, then let's combat that with better movement. 

Cupping

Being used for thousands of years in Eastern medicine, cupping has only recently become more well-known and utilized in the Western realm of treatment. What are we trying to accomplish with cupping exactly? We have multiple layers of tissues, from skin to fascia and muscles, and for healthy proper movement, we need all those layers to glide individually. Often times when we have irritation and pain, those layers tend to stick together preventing proper motion of all the layers. Cupping offers a way to bring space between those layers and allows additional circulation. 

Often used in conjecture with IASTM (noted below), cupping is one of the only soft tissue techniques that offers a decompressive therapy option rather than compressive. Sometimes having that varying approach can really make a difference with a condition. 

Instrument Assisted (IASTM)

Offering an alternative way to release soft tissue, using a metal instrument (in our case, but can be used with varying other materials) to create that tissue change. Often used prior to cupping therapy, it creates a method to increase circulation to the area under treatment, while simultaneously loosing up tissue and providing neurologic feedback that helps decrease pain receptor activity. Used by scraping and rubbing on the area, we can begin to stimulate blood flow through the injured area, creating a more healthy moving tissue.  

Adjustments

Probably the more well-known aspect of a chiropractic visit, the adjustment. There are varying philosophies and approaches to an adjustment and we might utilize our adjustments in a slightly different way than you've been exposed to in the past. Your body needs movement, if that's through your soft tissues being tight or the actual joint itself lacking sufficient movement, we utilize various modalities to create that desired motion. The adjustment is an incredible method to create motion at the joint.

You need all your joints through your body to work well together and for you, when some of those areas get restricted and start lacking motion for various reasons, that itself can cause problems or be related to such problems. Often times we see people with pain in one area and it is not from the joints in that area causing the pain, but the joints above and below that area (ie. low back pain - thus your hips and mid back, below and above the low back) that are restricted, resulting in your low back having to move excessively over and over to make up for the lack of motion somewhere else in your body.

Let's get everything to move better and how it should, and your body will thank you for it. 

Voodoo Floss

Utilizing thicker rubber bands to compress an area of tightness as another method to create better motion and loosen tissue tension. Becoming a very popular mobility technique in the fitness and exercise industry, it can have impressive results and creating better motion. Used by tightly compressing an area of tightness then moving your joint and body through the band compression, it creates a unique way to release tissues. As you move your tissues through the compressed area, it forces the tightness to break apart and loosen up in order to slide through that compression. 

E-Stim & Ultrasound

Used in various clinics, electrical stimulation and ultrasound offer a more passive approach to pain reduction and tissue release. Ultrasound is mainly designed for deep tissue heat by applying US waves to the body, they can penetrate to a deeper level than can be reached by topical heat packs and rubs. Often times, this deeper heat can be greatly beneficial to give additional blow flow circulation and help relax tightly spasmed and chronically fatigued muscles at a deeper level. 

Electrical stimulation is designed to create waves of micro-contractions of your muscles tailored for various therapeutic reasons. Depending upon the frequency of stimulation of the electronic contractions, we can help release tight muscles, promote blood flow, help circulation of fluids, and help break apart adhesions built up in the tissues. 

Myofascial Release

A very classic and effective approach to tissue release, the use of manual therapy. Technically many of the previous methods are all forms of myofascial release, but the use of our hands specifically on the body rather than another device or implement to help target tight muscles can be extremely useful. Similar to what you might find with massages or sports therapy approaches, utilizing manual MRT is a great way to reach some specific tightness areas.

Taping

Rocktape and various other kinesio-taping brands has become a very common practice, especially in the sporting realm. The tape used has a stretch component to it and is specifically designed to move with you without hindering motion. Acting in various ways, it helps add a neurological support to an area in a similar way as by having a sensory contact on the skin, allowing your brain to be more conscious and aware of the area. This heightened awareness of the area allows the body to respond quicker to changes in motion and movement patterns, providing what seems to be added support. The added stretch in the tape also adds a component of lift to the skin, providing more circulation through the area. The stretch can also be used to help with proprioception and body awareness when trying to attain better posture and movement mechanics. 

Dry Needling

Dry needling, or often referring to and known as acupuncture, is something that has been around for thousands of years. While acupuncture itself is its own profession, the tool and function of the needles themselves have some overlapping use between any practitioner. Even though we don’t use them to influence meridians or your chi like many initially think with acupuncture, we do use them in mechanically similar ways. We use them to help target deeper underlying tissues and have a few physiological benefits. The actual act of inserting the needle into the body causes a natural release of pain reducing opioids. We can influence the needles in a few ways or even add E-stim in combination with dry needles to have a bit more specific effect on those tissues. But even beyond that, needling is one of the only tools we have that can have direct access to deeper tissues, which can be immensely beneficial in some cases.

While it may seem scary to insert a needle, the actual size of needles is incredibly small (about 1/10th the size of your typical medical needle) and generally isn’t any more painful than a mosquito bite.