SOUTHRIDGE CHIROPRACTIC                     CENTER
909-428-0700
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Your First Visit
  • The Office
  • My Articles
  • Contact Us
  • COVID19

#65 Qualitative Verses Quantitative 

3/26/2014

0 Comments

 
            
            Yeah, I know, the title sounds boring and technical, but this is an important topic for you to understand and an important distinction to be made.  Simply, qualitative is how good or bad something is, like this ice cream tastes good or bad (as if ice cream could taste bad), and quantitative is how much ice cream you have (more is better).  But when it comes to your spine and subluxation, qualitative is how I measure what needs to be adjusted today.  And quantitative is how much subluxation your spine has, as measured on your last examination.  I make this distinction because a common question I get is, “How is my spine today?”  That’s a good question, but not the right one for an adjustment visit.  The right question for adjustment day is, “What do you need to adjust today?”  “How is my spine?” is best saved for your examination visit.  Let me explain.

            Based upon the stories so many of you have told me over the years, my office seems a little unique, as compared to other chiropractors, in that we have a true quantitative analysis of your spinal subluxation on your first visit.  We do an exam that measures the amount of subluxation based upon its five components.  We measure your posture and quantify it on a 1-4 scale.  We measure your range of motion with an inclinometer to the nearest degree.  Our least quantifiable component is muscle spasm, which we can only really locate and quantify how tender it is.  Then we measure the inflammation, again on that 1-4 scale.  Finally, we measure your degree of subluxation degeneration in phase 1, 2, 3, or 4.  So at the end of the exam we have a bunch of numbers, numbers that have a specific meaning and then can be compared to later when we do the exact same examination.  As you know most cases of subluxation need 50% improvement in these figures to end Initial Intensive Care and qualify for Reconstructive Care.  And 90%+ is the goal to qualify for wellness care.  But if you have significant degeneration or herniation the threshold for qualifying for Reconstructive Care can be as high as 75%.  Anyway, this is true quantification and only during your examination can I honestly and accurately answer the question, “How is my spine today?”

            But neither of us has the time to do an examination on every visit so my analysis on your adjustment visit is different.  I am not quantifying anything.  I am qualifying.  I am using my palpation skills (both static and motion) and comparing them with your last examination and x-ray findings (your last quantification) and filtering this through 25 years of experience (over 1 million adjustments given) to decide what needs to be done today.  The purpose of this qualitative analysis of your spine is so I can answer the question, “What do you need to adjust today?” 

            In conclusion we do regular quantitative examinations to measure the health of your spine and then we do daily qualitative analyses to know what to adjust today.   
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

    Personal Blog

    Archives

    March 2020
    November 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All

Company

Home
About Us
Your First Visit
The Office
Blog
Contact Us
COVID19
909-428-0700

What Our Patients Have To Say

Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.