Your nervous system controls every aspect and function of your body. Every part of your body needs to have proper communication with the brain to stay healthy. If there is interference with the nervous system organs and muscles will not be able to perform as designed and poor health results leading to disease and death. The most common cause of interference is when vertebrae misalign causing a subluxation which distorts or blocks the nerve impulses. This is why we need specific spinal x-rays to see and measure precisely the spinal vertebra. X-rays allow us to see malformations, misalignments, arthritis, degenerations, postural distortions, and other conditions of the spine. Although there are some chiropractic techniques that don’t require x-rays, some advanced procedures cannot be done without x-rays. Accurate x-rays allow us to be much more precise in our adjusting which allows for easier adjustments and faster results
Chiropractors are specially trained in reading spinal x-rays with more training in spinal radiology than most medical doctors. However, radiologists are better trained at diagnosing diseases of the spine since that is their specialty. If we see something suspicious, we can burn a copy of the x-rays onto a CD and have a radiologist give a second opinion. On the other hand chiropractors are the best at looking for misalignments that could be causing interference and other spinal biomechanical problems.
Chiropractors take x-rays differently than hospitals. Medical x-rays are usually taken lying down. Radiologists take many views of different parts of the body, often in emergencies, and must be able to take them quickly. Medical x-rays are usually just taken to look for disease and broken bones. They are not concerned with small misalignments like a chiropractor nor are they interested in posture. They simply put you in front of the tube and shoot. That is fine for what they are looking for, but not sufficient for looking for subluxations like a chiropractor. Chiropractors take x-rays standing up or sitting so we can the effects of gravity on the spine. Our equipment is laser aligned so that there is no distortion in the image. The patient, film and x-ray machine must be perfectly in line. Most medical x-ray machines are not aligned and are not suitable for chiropractic x-ray analysis.
Our chiropractic computer software with digital x-rays is the most accurate in the world for drawing lines on the spinal segments to measure misalignments to a hundredth of a degree. That is more accurate than we can adjust even with our precision table mounted instruments which can get to the nearest degree. Precise adjustments require much less force and can be done with instruments. The adjustment is painless and usually stays in line much better.
Everyone is concerned about radiation, but is afraid to ask, so I will give you the facts. X-rays are measured in REMS. To lower the REM exposure to patients, we use many lead shields and filters built within the x-ray machine to narrow down the exposure. Also, since we use digital imaging by Kodak, we can expose you less radiation and let the computer sharpen up the image after it is taken. We usually take three neck views and two pelvic/lumbar views. The neck view will be less than a .25 REMS and the pelvic/lumbar less than 2 REMS. Compare this to a commercial flight from LA to Paris 4.8 (before scanners), dental x-rays 310, an Apollo moon fight 480, barium colon x-rays 8,000, and radiation treatment for cancer 6,000,000. Sitting within three feet of a regular color TV all afternoon will get about the same as our x-rays. Each year we have our machine inspected by a certified x-ray physicist and we pass with flying colors every year.
I am a chiropractic upper cervical specialist. There are about a dozen of us in the state of Indiana. The upper neck is the key to the spine and helps to stabilize the spine. It misaligns differently on everyone just like finger prints are all different. It can misalign side to side, forwards or backward, and can rotate all in various degrees. Therefore we must see it in three views, thus three x-rays. Two of the views are only taken by chiropractors and have been used since the 1930’s.
