Do Chiropractic Adjustments Hurt?

I would like to answer a question that I hear a lot in my practice. The question is, "Do chiropractic adjustments hurt?" It's a very good question and the answer is, if the adjustments are done properly by a trained professional then the answer is no, Chiropractic adjustments should not hurt.

Now there's a difference between hurting and soreness. Sometimes people will get some soreness after an adjustment. Let's think about why that is. After an adjustment, you're moving your bones and joints differently than you have before. You're using your muscles differently that you have before. That's going to create some soreness. A good analogy is if you were to go to the gym, if you haven't been to the gym for a while, and you get a good workout in, you're going to get some sore muscles. That's very normal. It's the same kind of thing after getting adjusted.

I had a patient in my practice last week, who came in and had some lower back pain. We did his first adjustment and he felt really good. He actually jumped up off the table and said, “Hey I feel a lot better.” I still had to warn him, “Hey, I know you're feeling a lot better right now, but you're going to be using your muscles and bones differently so you might get some soreness later on tonight.” He came back the next day and said, “Dr. Hadden, you were right, I felt good right after the adjustment, but I did get sore last night.” And so we always instruct patients when you do get that soreness use an ice pack on it to help calm down the inflammation.

So like I said before if a Chiropractic adjustment is done properly by a trained professional it shouldn't hurt. It might give you some soreness, but it shouldn't cause real pain. Please do not have someone who's not a trained professional do your Chiropractic adjustment. That could actually cause some serious pain and I've had some new patients come in and say, "Gosh I was hurting and I let my wife pop my back and now it's worse than it was before." Definitely not a good idea.

If you have any questions about Chiropractic care, please feel free to call us at 636-272-7473 or check out our website at www.ofalloncrossingchiropractic.com.