Don't Try This at Home!

Chiropractors often get this question from patients: '"…is it OK to 'adjust' your own spine?" (usually asked after seeing a friend or family member crank their neck from side to side, trying to get it to pop).  Well, the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT.  

Just considering the subluxation analysis, palpation skill, radiographic interpretation, instrumentation reading, line of drive consideration, force quotients, contact points, vertebral level selection, contra-indication assessment, knowledge of family history, patient positioning, breath control, purpose, intent and timing that goes into delivering a single, healing thrust - you'd be insane to think you could do that safely and effectively to another human being without years of post graduate work and clinical training, let alone yourself.  Sure it may look simple, but there's a lot more going on during a specific, loving, Chiropractic ADJUSTMENT than what meets the eye.  

No respectable Chiropractor would try to adjust their own spine, just like no Dentist would ever try to give him or herself a root canal - that's best left to a well trained, capable set of hands that can do the job objectively.  If you know someone who insist on habitually 'adjusting' their own spine, tell them to be safe and leave that to the professionals - or else we'll have to put a cone on them.