My job is clinical director of a pain management clinic in Phoenix. I also happen to be a chiropractor. The company I work for has multiple clinics and utilizes medical, physical therapy and Chiropractic to address acute and chronic pain in our patients.

My office has a PA, a PT and support staff directly under me and we have a surgical center with our MDs that provide everything from nerve blocks to orthopedic and spinal surgeries. Every one of these surgeons works arm and arm with chiropractors and considers us to be important for directing the patient to where they need to go.

That being said I saw a lot of misconceptions about my profession that I wanted to straighten out.

1- The Whackos in the profession. Yes, there are plenty of whackos in my profession. These are guys who dress like hippies at work, tape herbs to people’s backs, use crystals or other crap pseudo science. I assure you, none of this was taught at any Chiropractic school I am familiar with. And not all chiros are the same. But it’s the same in any profession. In the town I came from we have an MD who goes by the nickname of “2 minute Taylor.” If you need opioids you schedule an appt with him, tell him you have pain, and in two min or less you walk out with a prescription for opioids. He is an example of a bad MD. Yet I don’t affiliate his practices with the rest of medicine because of what he does wrong.

2- Chiros just want to overtreat you. This is absolutely the case sometimes and goes along with the type of Chiro you see. If it’s a cash practice they generally want to get as high of volume as they can in order to make expenses. For most clinics we don’t rely on high volume for our compensation. Instead we rely upon utilizing ortho and neurological tests, X-ray and MRI imaging and have a specific treatment plan for thr patients specific diagnoses. 90% of the patients I see have a specific acute or chronic issue that we are addressing with our multidisciplinary approach. The treatment plan is specific because insurances reimburse you with specific plans. If you just want to be “popped” find a cash practice and go in for a quick 60 second adjustment.

3- Chiros can’t diagnose and are similar to massage therapists. This is absolutely false. Massage School is a 9-12 month course where they graduate basically with a trade and no real degree. Chiropractors gonto school for 4 years and have to pass 5 sets of national board exams and any required state board exams depending on where they practice. They are considered gateway physicians in every state and are required by insurance to diagnose each patient if they want to be reimbursed. Once again some Chiros don’t like insurances and will instead be higher volume cash practices that behave more like a technician or trade School approach. I would be very leary of seeing someone like that.

4- Chiros who work with accident victims are basically ambulance chasers. This is also patently false, as every state i know of make it illegal for a Chiro to solicit victims of an accident directly. I work with lots of Personal Injury cases and the majority of our patients are referred by law firms who know that chiropractic treatment can be very effective for accident victims and is low cost compared to medical treatment. I also have in house referrals from patients who have referred friends who were in car accidents. My approach is every new patient gets medically evaluated from our PA first before seeing me or the PT, if patients don’t respond we re-examine and send over to surgical center for other approaches if needs be. But I also know not every Chiro follows this approach. But the good ones will.

TL;DR Like any profession chiropractors have a wide range of quality. My recommendation is to know your facts, ask around and get a referral to see a good one that comes recommended, if you find one who tapes herbs to you or utilizes magic crystals, please find another one instead of lumping an entire profession in with its bad eggs.