In our Jacksonville chiropractic clinic, we see many people who are suffering from back pain, and a few of these patients have been told they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Silver Chiropractic & Wellness has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific research confirms the success we see in our practice. One study published in the medical journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first step in dealing with your back pain may literally keep you off of the operating table.
In this report, medical researchers from Dartmouth reviewed statistics from 1,885 workers from Washington state who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractor for their back pain issues. They then examined three years' worth of follow-up medical information to determine whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an effort to treat the issue.
What the researchers determined was that about 43% of the men and women who first consulted with a surgeon for their back pain ended up having a surgical procedure in that 3-year time span, whereas only 1.5% of those who first consulted with a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:
"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."
These are impressive outcomes. Seeing a chiropractor dramatically reduces your odds of getting back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this report "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.
Let's also take into consideration this important detail: this study was performed by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most distinguished medical journal on spinal injuries.
Any surgical procedure has risks, but a serious downside related to spine surgery is that there's a very high failure rate. In an important review in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:
"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."
"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."
As a chiropractor, Silver Chiropractic & Wellness is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have established the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.
If you live in Jacksonville and you need relief for your back pain, give our office a call today at (904) 634-0805 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!
Studies
Dr. Rita Hanania, D.C.
Dr. Rita is a Jacksonville native and graduate from the University of North Florida with a bachelors degree in health science. Her passion for helping others led her to pursue her Doctorate from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Port Orange, Florida where she graduated as Salutatorian of her class.
Dr. Rita utilizes a whole person approach and tailors each patient's care to their specific needs. She specializes in a variety of techniques, but not limited to, instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, diversified, gonstead, flexion and distraction, thompson, and activator. In addition, Dr. Rita is fluent in Arabic which allows her to provide comprehensive chiropractic care to the Arabic-speaking community.