Structure Dictates Function
What that means is that the way in which your body is structurally aligned and moving together, directly impacts and in part controls how you are able to heal and function day to day.
For that reason, we focus first and foremost on the physical structure of your body. That is step one. The foundation. From then on, we can look deeper into fine-tuning the function of your body, but that must be our starting point.
When we talk about the structure, we are talking more specifically about the muscles and joints of your body. When they are lined up and moving well, your body and brain are able to function optimally.
Alignment is one piece of the puzzle, but motion is the other. Motus is the name of our practice, and that is the Latin word formotion. That name was chosen for the clinic because of how truly vital healthy joint motion is for your health and physiology overall. When we are talking about motion, we are specifically talking about mechanoreception.
You see, every joint in the body has these little receptors in it, called the mechanoreceptor. Those receptors send signals to your brain, and it is through that process that your brain ultimately knows where you are at in the world. Therefore, when we fix joint problems, we are on some level, fixing brain problems. This is great news in the sense that your brain controls your whole life! That’s why chiropractic can have such a profound impact on such a wide array of systems and symptoms in the body.
In addition to the neurological changes, we also obviously see tremendous changes to joint health when joints move appropriately and are lined up well. Joint motion directly decreases inflammation, improves blood flow, and decreases degenerative changes to joints such as arthritis. We typically will see an almost immediate change in joint health, pain, and mobility with effective joint manipulation.
Not all chiropractic care is created equal. There is a large amount of diversity amongst chiropractors and no two are exactly the same. With that said, below we will detail out some specifics as far as how we do things in our clinic. That way you can make an informed decision for your health.
Adjusting Techniques
We use any and all adjusting techniques there are. If there is something very specific you’ve had done elsewhere that you love, we probably do it here or at least very similar. Some people want to be adjusted very physically, some people want as little force as possible with no twisting or popping – we can accommodate both scenarios and anywhere in between. With that said, our primary methods are as follows:
Diversified Spinal Manipulation
- This is what most people think of when they think chiropractor, but there is a huge difference in an adjustment that is just ok, and an adjustment that is done well.
- Quality physical manipulation is very difficult to come by. Dr. Maass has spent countless hours of additional training in manual manipulation from some of the best in the world. And then to work alongside in this clinic is a rigorous onboarding training process in physical manipulation. We pride ourselves on being some of the best manual adjusters you will find anywhere. Don’t believe it? Give us a call. We’d love to show you.
- We treat the full spine every time we see you. Your spine functions as a unit, so therefore it needs treated as such.
Extremity Manipulation
Every joint in your body is just as important as any other. Therefore, we treat every joint, head to toe.
- Feet / Ankles – The feet are the foundation of your body, we always start there and address all of the bones throughout the feet, arches, and ankles.
- Knees – Knee problems are almost always the result of foot/ankle problems or hip problems.
- Hips – Hip issues can be a huge piece of low back pain.
- Hand / Wrist – Carpal tunnel is almost always a joint problem in the wrist that is a straightforward fix.
- Elbow – The elbow must be assessed to make sure there isn’t any nerve entrapment in the back of the elbow joint.
- Shoulder – The shoulder is the most complex joint in the body. It is actually 3 separate joints in one – and they all need addressed.
- TMJ – your temporomandibular joint is often the source of relentless jaw pain, and can even be a culprit in upper neck pain and headaches. That’s why we treat it as well.
Drop Tables
This technique involves a drop-down piece of the table that raises and lowers slightly with the adjustment. This helps to isolate a specific joint and allows us to use far less force while still accomplishing the same goal.
Flexion/Distraction
This technique involves the bottom end of the table raising and lowering. With each motion of the table lowering, it stretches and decompresses all of the joints in the lower back and hips.
Activator
This technique involves a small tool to help with the adjustment. It is very, very low force and is great if you have any contraindications to regular care such as osteoporosis, (or newborn babies) or if you just don’t like the cracking and popping. We don’t do traditional Activator Method’s Scan and Protocol, but we use the instruments as an additional tool as needed.
ArthroStim
This is the same idea as the activator, just an automated version.
SOT
This stands for sacro-occipital-therapy. We use SOT blocking over the pelvis and some of their cranial manipulation methods as necessary.
Gonstead
Very similar to diversified from the outside looking in, manual hands on adjusting. Some of our manual adjustments will actually be a “Gonstead” adjustment instead of “diversified”, but they still function the same and have the same goal in mind.
Wholistic Treatment Protocols
The body functions as one unit, not a bunch of individual parts. With any health condition, there will always be multiple systems involved. For that reason, it is imperative that we treat you fully in order to fix the true cause.
With that in mind, we look at the body as a whole and design treatment strategies as such. In all cases, we focus on 3 specific areas:structural correction, metabolic support, and neurological control. It’s never just one.
Structural Correction
In order to fully resolve structural issues, we must address all aspects of it. That means taking care of joint alignment and mobility, scar tissue and adhesions, and correcting muscular imbalances. We do that in 3 specific ways
- Chiropractic adjusting – as detailed above, we mobilize and manipulate joints in order to correct joint alignment and mobility and to restore healthy mechanoreception.
- Massage/Manual Therapy – In addition to chiropractic manipulation, we utilize focused soft tissue treatments to break up scar tissue and adhesions in muscles, ligaments, and joint capsules. For more information on our specific techniques, please check out our massage page by clicking here.
- Corrective Exercise – Lastly, after the joints are moving appropriately and the soft tissues are free of restrictions, we need to strengthen and retrain muscles and movement patterns. We do this with very specific corrective exercises to fix muscle imbalances and correct posture and spinal curvatures.
Metabolic Support
Metabolic health and function plays a vital piece in your body’s ability to heal. We incorporate comprehensive supplemental and nutritional support as needed.
Perhaps you are dealing with some serious gut health issues, or maybe you desperately need to lose some weight but just can’t seem to do so, or maybe you just deal with chronic fatigue and inflammation. In any and all circumstances, we can drastically improve your outcomes that you will have in our office by adding some nutritional and metabolic support along with your chiropractic care.
If there are any serious health concerns going on from a metabolic standpoint, then we may also order some advanced laboratory testing in order to gain more clarity with the specific support you would need.
For more information, please see our gut health page, our body contouring page, and our chronic disease page.
Neurological Control
Your brain controls everything that happens in your body. Therefore, we must always assess neurological function as well when trying to get you truly well. We do this through a field of health care called functional neurology.
Functional neurology focuses on subtle (or not-so-subtle) imbalances in the brain and how to fix them. We are able to utilize simple coordinated movement patterns, eye movements, balance, as well as others to assess each region of the brain individually. Ideally each region of the brain is functioning well, and is balanced between the right and left side. When that is not the case, that’s when disease and disfunction begins.
Neurological imbalance can be a huge piece of chronic pain and disease.
Supportive Therapies
After looking at the body from a wholistic perspective, evaluating you structurally, metabolically, and neurologically, we then support body systems as needed with various therapies in the office. Some of the most common are as follows:
- Cold Laser – Light energy directly increase voltage of cells and improves tissue healing. Light is able to donate electrons directly to the mitochondria of the cell which can then be used to produce ATP or energy. This is a powerful method of improving cellular health systemically, as well as for local tissue healing. Laser applications are very focal as far as treatment circumference, and depth of penetration is deeper than with LED sources. Laser is great for chronic musculoskeletal issues that don’t respond, or for targeting specific regions of the brain for functional neurological treatments.
- Spinal Decompression – Spinal decompression is the most effective way at opening disc spaces and relieving pressure on intervertebral discs. We use it to gently traction apart joint spaces in the spine. When dealing with disc bulges or herniations, sciatica or radiating pain, or severe degeneration or arthritis, spinal decompression is the most powerful natural treatment and is extremely effective when combined with chiropractic care. For more information, please visit our spinal decompression page
- Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) – Oxygen is a vital component for all cells to heal. With exercise, your oxygen saturation very predictably decreases inside of the cells. If we are then able to provide highly concentrated oxygen in response, you then get a flood of highly concentrated oxygen throughout your body. This can provide a much needed boost to cellular function if your body is just unable to get over the hump on it’s own.
- Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMF) – cellular voltage is a very predictable gauge of chronic disease. Where cells have lower voltage or charge, they die. Where cells have a high voltage, they replicate and heal. PEMF directly increases polarity and voltage throughout the cells in your body, thereby increasing their ability to heal and function. Additionally, the electromagnetic current is able to vibrate tissues all the way through the body and thereby, is able to very effectively break up scar tissue and decrease inflammation.
- Acupuncture – acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat a vast array of health challenges. It is now known that one of the biggest impact we have with acupuncture is the neurological change that happens in the brain, as well as the electrical change that happens in the cells of the body. We utilize it to support any other treatment strategy we are working towards in the office.
- Red and Infra Red LED Light Therapy – Similar to the cold lasers we use, light energy still directly increases voltage of cells, increases ATP production, and improves cellular health systemically. We utilize the Contour Light in the clinic which is the most powerful device on the market. With LED, depth of penetration is less, but we are able to target the whole body in one session. One additional benefit of full body Light therapy is fat loss. For more information on that, please visit our body contouring page.
- Home Therapies – We use several home therapies to support in clinic treatments as well. Some of the most commonly used are infra-red devices and electro-magnetic devices. Home therapy is sometimes a crucial part of treatment if we are dealing with serious, chronic issues.
New Patient Exam Process
Consultation
Each visit will begin with an in depth consultation with one of our doctors discussing the specifics of your health history and intake forms. This will lay the foundation for your care moving forward, and gives you an opportunity to tell us exactly why you’re here and what’s important to you.
Examination
After the consultation, we will move in to an in depth, head-to-toe, physical examination. This will involve a hands on portion by the doctor, as well as some various specialized tests. Exam procedures are as follows:
- Vital Signs – We take vital assessments such as body weight, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, etc. on every patient to ensure safety of treatment.
- Bioimpedance Measurement – We use bioimpedance scales in the office to assess body mass index, % body fat, % muscle mass, and overall body weight. This gives greater insight into metabolic health than simply weight or BMI alone.
- FootLevelers Scan – This scan shows arch support on the bottoms of the feet which serves as the foundation for the rest of your body. Additionally, this measurement also provides weight distribution between each side of the body and provides us with a balance percentage.
- Static and Motion Palpation – This scan shows arch support on the bottoms of the feet which serves as the foundation for the rest of your body. Additionally, this measurement also provides weight distribution between each side of the body and provides us with a balance percentage.
- Range of Motion – In addition to palpation, range of motion is a very important piece of the puzzle. We will check full spinal range of motion as well as any problem are you have
- Orthopedic Testing – Certain hands on orthopedic tests can rule in or out various tissues that may be involved. This will include checking for disc herniations, muscle strains, arthritis/degeneration, ligament sprains, etc. We will use any test we deem necessary to get as clear of a diagnostic picture as possible.
- Neurological Testing – Similar to orthopedic testing, certain hands on neurological examinations can be performed in order to assess nerve function. Typically we only utilize neurological testing in the presence of nerve damage, such as a peripheral neuropathy or bad sciatica or other radiating nerve pain. We are able to get a very clear picture of what nerve levels are involved, and what degree of damage or sensory loss is at play. This is very crucial in determining prognosis and what results to expect moving forward.
- Functional Neurological Examination – In addition to traditional neurological testing which focuses on peripheral nerves in the body, functional neurology focuses on central problems in the brain. We are able to utilize simple coordinated movement patterns, eye movements, balance, as well as others to assess each region of the brain. Ideally each region of the brain is functioning well, and is balanced between the right and left side. When that is not the case, that’s when disease and disfunction begins.
- X-ray – Xray is a powerful diagnostic tool which allows us to have a very clear picture into the joint integrity of the body. It gives us a “snapshot” into what your alignment looks like, as well as the current spacing between joints, and what level (if any) of degeneration or arthritic change is present. This is important in determining prognosis and what results to expect, as well as from a safety standpoint to ensure that you are safe to be treated. We utilize X-rays case by case as the doctor deems necessary.
- Leg Length X-ray – we use a radiographic technique called a standing orthoroentgenogram. This procedure utilizes 3 separate X-rays centered over your hips, knees, and ankles, on both legs, with a full length lead ruler behind you. This allows us to measure the exact bone length of each leg and determine if there is a leg length discrepancy. This can be a very important piece of the puzzle in dealing with chronic pain issues.
Report of Findings
After all of your examination findings have been calculated and brought together, our doctors will sit down and design a customized plan of care moving forward for you with the specifics of how we will get you well. We will go over this in detail with you before beginning treatment so that you can be clear about what is going on with your health, how we are going to fix it, how long it will take, and how much it will cost. We carve out ample time for this process so that we can fully address any questions or concerns you may have.