January 2005

Stopping subluxations before they start

by Dr. Terry A. Rondberg

A patient arrives in your office and you adjust her spine and correct her subluxations.

By the time she walks out the door, her spine is on the way to being subluxated again because of her unbalanced gait.

The fact is, no matter how great your skills are, you can't truly stabilize a patient's spine and achieve long‑term results unless you try to discover and correct the cause of the subluxations.

Of course, the list of possible physical and emotional stress triggers that play a part in subluxations is so lengthy you can't always discover the true cause. The subluxations may have started at birth or during childhood, or been caused by trauma such as a fall or an accident. They may be the result of years of poor posture or unhealthy habits. Even when you do determine the causes, you can't always do anything about them.

However, subluxations can also be caused, at least in part, by an unbalanced gait ‑‑ and you CAN do something about that. According to Mark Charrette, DC, a recognized expert in spinal and extremity adjusting, “There is a fine interplay between the movements of the lower extremities and the balancing of the spine. Normal gait causes repetitive motions to occur from the feet up to the head. Alignment and function of the pelvis, spine, shoulders, and head are strongly influenced by pedal balance or imbalance... Because a smooth and symmetrical gait is tied so closely to proper vertebral function, biomechanical problems in one or both feet can interfere with postural alignment patterns.” In 1994, Terry Yocum, DC, reported in Practical Research Studies, that at least 75% of the population has some degree of leg length inequality ... which can lead to excessive foot pronation ... which can lead to gait imbalance ... which can lead to subluxations. If you correct subluxations but do not correct the cause of the subluxations, are you really helping your patients, or are you merely trapping them inside the revolving door of adjustments and re‑subluxation?

It's not an easy decision to direct attention away from the spine to the feet. As chiropractors, our primary concern is to detect and correct vertebral subluxations and, therefore, we concentrate our efforts on the spine. But to really provide complete subluxation corrective care, we need to also look at the feet and determine the need for orthotics that will help correct the gait problems that can translate into subluxations.

Many DCs shy away from working with postural problems or orthotics. They may feel such care is not strictly in the realm of chiropractic, or they may feel offering orthotics is a time‑consuming or difficult service.

In reality, anything that prevents, corrects or addresses any component of the vertebral subluxation complex is rightfully within the sphere of chiropractic and in complete accordance with chiropractic principles.

Just as a dental office should provide cleanings and dental care education as well as fill cavities, the chiropractic

office should provide those services that aid in the prevention of subluxations, stabilize the spine and reinforce the power of the adjustment.

Chiropractors need to determine the necessity of orthotic support, particularly among those patients who seem less successful at holding their adjustments, and they need to help patients obtain high‑quality orthotics that can help correct postural problems.

Luckily, as a doctor of chiropractic, you have an excellent tool to make that determination quickly and easily, without expensive or complicated adjuncts to your practice. In using the Footlevelers system, you simply have the patient step into a casting kit containing soft foam that captures an exact impression of his or her feet, in the standing position.

Using Footlevelers guidelines, you determine which style of orthotics is appropriate, and send the casting kit to the laboratory where the orthotics are created.

The lab sends the custom‑made orthotics to your office, and ‑‑ during a follow‑up appointment ‑‑ you show the patient how to wear them properly and how to take care of them, again using the Footlevelers guidelines and materials.

This isn't a medical device but a truly chiropractic one, developed by one of the most respected and honored leaders of the profession, Monte Greenawalt. “Fifty years ago, as a chiropractor I had an idea,” he explains. “I wanted to create whole body support for my patients by effectively positioning their feet ‑‑ the foundation for the body ‑‑ with high quality, custom‑made flexible orthotics.”

He did just that and, in the process, revolutionized chiropractic. He stopped the “revolving door” for thousands of patients, and gave their DCs a way to address the cause of the subluxation and provide true long‑term results.

For doctors, Footlevelers has meant not only being able to provide better care to patients, but an increase in practice size and income, thanks to referrals from satisfied patients. Regardless of the type of practice or the techniques used, the ability to offer the unique Footlevelers orthotics can give DCs a valuable edge on their competition.

For more information on orthotics as a way to reinforce subluxation corrective care, call 800‑553‑4860 or visit the Footlevelers website, www.footlevelers.com.