Is Chiropractic Care Recommended After Surgery?

Can a Chiropractor help after Spinal Surgery?

Unfortunately, many patients who decide to see a Chiropractor for the first time do so after days- months- sometimes years- of suffering. Often, they’ve tried every medication, massage, stretch and specialist on the planet, many of them even having had surgery.

As most people find, if your spine is subluxated, out of alignment, it is unlikely that there is a ‘quick fix’, and that’s why they finally end up on our doorstep.

A frequent question we get asked is whether Chiropractors can even help those who have already had spinal surgery. This certainly brings several considerations to the forefront.

The most glaringly obvious one is that a part of the spine now may be missing, such as a laminectomy or discectomy. Another is there is now equipment such as nuts, bolts, screws or chains holding the spine together.

Despite this, the answer is ...

Yes. Chiropractic care may still be recommended after surgery.

Chiropractic can often still help, and chiropractic care can still be recommended after surgery. But how?

The short answer: the Chiropractor will use gentle, non-forceful techniques on the area of surgery if they have done all the necessary testing and it's appropriate to do so. Usually, they will still be able to adjust the rest of the spine too, where there has been no surgery which can make a significant improvement in all areas.

The slightly less short answer: your neck is connected to your midback, which is connected to your low back. If one of these areas is out of alignment, it can affect the way the rest of your spine functions too.

By correcting subluxations- misalignments- in your spine, nerve flow is improved, so your brain can communicate better with the rest of your body and allow it to heal itself.

Poor alignment in one area of your spine can also influence another area.

Imagine that you have had some sort of leg injury that makes you hobble around for a few days, only to find that by putting so much pressure on your uninjured leg, it is causing pain in that leg too.

Your spine is similar- if one area is poorly aligned, other areas are forced to compensate, causing strain on them as well. Thus, by aligning areas of your spine that haven’t been surgically operated on, the areas of the surgery site may and often do improve.

Additionally, there are effective, non-forceful techniques that get great results that Chiropractors can use on the areas of surgery. For example, Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT) is a safe approach that gently and subtly enables corrections using blocks and reflex techniques.

Surgery and Chiropractic

At House of Chiropractic, our initial screening process is very thorough- the initial assessment, examination and digital postural analysis can be combined with X-Rays to ensure that we are working safely and confidently on your spine.

If you are one of the few people who we truly can’t help, then we will try our best to direct you to the best path forward.

The point here is that even if Chiropractic is your last resort- even if you’ve tried invasive surgery but are still left with unanswered questions and pain- it’s never too late to start.

If you put yourself out there, we will put our best foot forward and endeavour to help you in whatever way we can. Feel free to call us at House of Chiropractic on 02 6009 0999 if you have any further questions or would like to book an appointment.

* These images of spines in this article are from patients of ours that we have been able to help.