March 2004

Orthodontists 3, Chiropractors 1

by Dr. Richard A. Graham, for Posture Pump, Inc.

Why do orthodontists make about three times more than chiropractors? Yes, that's right, they average around $200 per visit. Most of their patients have little or no insurance coverage. Sound familiar? How does a predominantly cash practice command such a premium per visit?

By re‑shaping the mouth, orthodontists are not affecting something as dynamic and vital as the housing of the central nervous system.

They are not relieving or preventing the insidious degenerative ramifications of lordotic loss, spinal rotational malposition, spinal buckling and deviation from the midline, atlantal‑occipital malocclusion, intervertebral disc swelling, bulging and locking or years of painful stiff misery.

So how do orthodontists working less than 40 hours per week average $350,000 per year? They make corrections! Corrections run about $4,000 per case and take about two years.

How do they do it?

Pressure over time. Almost all of the correction takes place outside of the office! Think about that for a moment. Here is the average orthodontist making three times what the average D.C. is making and is not even present when most of the correction takes place. What's wrong with that? Nothing! Can we learn something from them? Plenty!

The orthodontist uses a two‑pronged approach.

1. The adjustment of braces in the office, which has a sustained pressure‑over‑time, and

2. The home care appliance, which accentuates an additional pressure‑over‑time component.

Can current chiropractic methodology match this powerful one‑two punch? With the developments in Chiropractic Biophysics and Biomechanics the Harrisons and Pettibons have given us a definitive road map. History will show that we can never thank them enough.

And now that we know where we are going, it's up to us as practitioners to choose, perfect, develop and implement the most effective modes of transportation, transportation that will drive us to the definitive correction.

Whether it's a lateral translation traction device, U‑shaped metal frame with pulleys, motorized flexion distraction table, advanced method for atlantal‑occipital realignment or an inflatable lordotic recovery machine, methods are improving.

It wasn't long ago that the average orthodontic correction required four years. The price is still about $4,000 but advancements in technique and home care appliances have cut the time in half. That's effectively a 100% increase in payment for the doctor's time and better for the patient as well. Reliable predictable spinal corrections can give rise to pricing power for chiropractors as well.

Spinal adjustments have a dynamic and often long‑term health benefit but do not exhibit the sustained pressure‑over‑time factor so effectively employed by the orthodontist. We can overcome this with corrective pressure‑over‑time home care. Home care is important in orthodontics but it's essential in lasting spinal correction.

Home care is what lifts the correction over the finish line. It changes no‑change into change, kyphotic into lordotic, misery into RELIEF, failure into success and poverty into wealth.

Be realistic, doctor. Stop beating yourself up when you don't see immediate significant structural change. Significant change often requires significant pressure over significant time. It doesn't all happen immediately in your office.

Make patients accountable for their correction. Never send them home without an 'effective corrective' home care regime. Moreover, never send a patient with lordotic loss home without a Posture Pump ‑‑ never! Help your patients get the results they deserve by employing pressure‑over‑time and then claim your just rewards.

(Dr. Graham is the inventor of the Stereo Anterior Condylar Study, the Liquid Lock Reduction Method for the lower spine and holds four patents for Posture Pump spinal corrective equipment. For further information, contact Posture Pro Inc. at 800‑Neck Pro [632‑5776] or visit www.posturepump.com)