Should I Wait for a Scan Before Starting Chiropractic Care?

At Wimbledon Chiropractic and Sports Injury Clinic, one of the most common questions we receive from new patients is whether they should wait for a scan before beginning chiropractic care. 

It's an important consideration, as diagnostic imaging can provide valuable insights into one's condition. 

However, waiting for a scan is not always necessary or in the client's best interest. 

In this article, we'll explore when it might be essential to have a scan first and when you can safely begin chiropractic treatment without one.

The Role of Diagnostic Imaging

Firstly, we adore diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, which is crucial in modern healthcare. We love it so much that we, as a professional chiropractors, are trained at the undergrad level as radiologists for musculoskeletal health. 

At the Wimbledon Chiro Clinic, we have an X-ray suite to evaluate cases on-site quickly and efficiently without delay

These imaging tools help medical professionals such as ours diagnose various conditions by providing detailed images of the body's internal structures. 

They are handy for identifying fractures, dislocations, severe degenerative changes, tumours, and other significant pathologies.

When Should You Have a Scan Before Chiropractic Care?

There are specific situations where having a scan before starting chiropractic treatment is advisable:

3. Chronic Conditions

For individuals with chronic conditions like longstanding back pain or previous spinal surgeries, imaging can provide valuable information about the spine's current state and guide the chiropractor in developing a safe and effective treatment plan.

4. Red Flags

Specific symptoms, known as red flags, indicate the need for immediate imaging. 

These include unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, night pain that does not ease with rest, and significant recent changes in bowel or bladder function. 

These include unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, night pain that does not ease with rest, and significant recent changes in bowel or bladder function. 

But at the clinic, we have a few of our own ‘red flags’ that indicate the need for further investigation; these might be a history of you having care with someone else that has not yielded significant or long-term results. After postural analysis, we see substantial postal deformities. These often indicate changes in the bone structure that you wouldn’t otherwise expect or congenital/born with anomalies. 

Spotting these is crucial for a smooth care plan but can also flag cases where the expected changes might be 30% lower than a traditional client. This means we can advise the clients that they will likely heal much slower than expected. However, with that said, we are amazed daily by cases that look on scans as if they should recover slowly or hardly recover at all and have been told by other clinicians that they are candidates for invasive surgery, and yet they get better and sometimes get better quicker than clients with all the norms

When Chiropractic Care Can Start Without a Scan

For many patients, especially those with common musculoskeletal issues, starting chiropractic care without a scan is perfectly safe and often recommended. Here’s why:

1. Comprehensive Physical Examination

Chiropractors are trained to perform thorough physical examinations and take detailed patient histories. This process often provides sufficient information to make an accurate diagnosis and develop an initial treatment plan.

2. Trial of Conservative Care

In many cases, a trial of conservative care, such as chiropractic adjustments, exercise therapy, and lifestyle modifications, can be initiated. If symptoms improve with this approach, further imaging may not be necessary. 

In the system in the UK with the NHS, unless we’ve got a private route to imagery, say upstairs in our private facility or to a hospital around the corner for a semi-instant turnaround, then if the client is instead put into a queue while suffering. Now, of course, this isn’t always the case on NHS, but it’s something we come across regularly. 

Still, we must remember something about the body's mechanics: that healing has a window of opportunity and that the static and guarded body quickly becomes weaker, and the tissues get stiffer. Therefore, waiting too long to scan invariably means slower results once treatment eventually starts. Healing time is undoubtedly linked to the time pain and guarding have been present. 

For example, if we can get the scan in a week! 👍🏻- great! But if the scan is going to take four weeks 👎🏻, it tends to put the client into further chronicity meetings as they are getting weaker. And then the mental outlook is getting worse because of the pain levels.

Trial treatment may be just what the client needs; however, and experienced Chiropractor can assume the worst and work from the point. I.e., the practitioner may say if the MRI or x-ray shows this, I would do this in the worst-case scenario. So they may assume you are a worse case than you appear and use technics that are softer.

3. Monitoring Progress

Chiropractors can monitor your progress closely. If your condition does not improve as expected or worsens, they may recommend further imaging to reassess and refine your treatment plan.