Call (608) 250-5200New Patients at Lifecity Chiropractic
Is this your first time going to a Chiropractor? It’s helpful to know what to expect at your visit before you arrive. Understanding chiropractic care and the processes involved with it can improve your overall experience.
Stresses (physical, chemical or emotional) in or on the body can cause misalignments to the spine and surrounding joints. Misalignments can alter the neurological communication between our brain and our body, causing unpleasant symptoms such as pain, muscle spasm, numbness, tingling, abnormal motion or even organ dysfunction.
Chiropractors move your spine and other joints to get them into better position, this is called manipulation or adjustment. However, chiropractic care includes more than just spinal adjustments. Chiropractic doctors have training in exercise, therapy, nutrition, bone, joint, and nervous system disorders. Their multifaceted training allows them to properly evaluate you and make the best recommendations on how to get you feeling better as soon as possible.
As with other doctor appointments, the first visit starts with your medical history and a physical exam.
First visits often last about 40 minutes. Your Chiropractor will ask about your medical history and about your symptoms.
Tell your chiropractor about:
- Why you want help
- Past injuries or surgeries
- Pertinent medical conditions
- Any medications, vitamins or supplements you take
- Your lifestyle habits including exercise, diet, stress and sleep
It is VERY important to be open and honest with your chiropractor when answering these questions as your responses may affect which treatment options we use.
New patient forms are emailed to you when you schedule. It can be less stressful and more time efficient to answer medical questions when you are at home rather than at the doctor’s office. This will also help you focus on what is bothering you when you meet face to face during your appointment.
After taking your history, your chiropractor will do a physical examination. The chiropractor may feel your spine, move your joints and watch the way you walk. They will also test your muscle strength, reflexes, range of motion as well as orthopedic tests to evaluate for certain conditions. In some cases, the chiropractor might recommend other tests such as X-rays.
Your chiropractor will often start treatment on the first visit. If that is the case, this is what may happen:
You will lie on a special treatment table for an adjustment.
Your chiropractor will take the part of your body being treated–usually your neck or back–and move it to its maximum range and then give an extra thrust to set the joint in its proper alignment. They may use a special instrument or drop table to aid the adjustment.
You might hear a popping sound, like the sound of cracking your knuckles. This is the result of dissolved gasses escaping from the joint space.
Following the adjustment your chiropractor may suggest treatments to compliment the adjustment. This could include heat or ice, electric muscle stimulation, kinesio-taping, soft tissue work, dry needling or stretching.
If you respond well to treatment, you can expect a recommendation for follow-up visits. Chiropractic care builds on itself so most treatment plans last for several weeks. We will see you more frequently at first to correct the underlying cause of your complaint and to retrain your body to stay aligned. Once you are feeling better, your visits will be tapered out. Ask your chiropractor how long your treatments will last and when you should start to feel better.
Your chiropractor may give you instructions for home care as well.
Unlike your initial exam, expect regular visits to be 10 minutes on average. If you receive other therapies on the same day as your chiropractic adjustment, your appointment may be longer.
Having laid the groundwork during the first visit, we can quickly recognize changes from your previous appointment, adjust you and get you on your way.
Like a regular workout at the gym, each visit builds on the ones before it. Inversely, missing a visit can cause us to lose the momentum necessary to make the needed changes, so it is very important that you stick to the care plan your doctor has recommended.
We recognize your time is valuable therefore we do everything possible to run on schedule and minimize the time taken out of your day.
Will my insurance cover chiropractic?
Many health insurance plans cover chiropractic care. The doctors at Lifecity Chiropractic are preferred providers with most national and local insurance plans. We will happily give you an estimate of your insurance benefits with us at your appointment, but we recommend that you call your insurance plan and understand your benefit and coverage information prior to your visit.
Our office will file any claim to your primary insurance carrier and collect any copay on the day of your visit. Any services applied to your deductible or co-insurance will be sent to you as a billing statement after your insurance carrier has processed the claim.
We Participate with the following health plans:
- United Health Care
- Quartz
- Aetna (Multiplan Network)
- Humana
- Cigna
- The Alliance
- SHIP (student health insurance plan)
- HealthPartners
- Multiplan
- Health EOS
- Magellan
- Medicare
- Medicaid/Forward Health/Badgercare
- Dean POS (Multiplan Network)
- WEA
- WPS
- Care Wisconsin
*All insurance plans we work with are not listed above. Please contact our office or your insurance carrier for more information.
Many patients find our services convenient and affordable. We offer a cost-effective, same day adjustment fee as well as flexible payment options. We also accept HSA (health savings account) and flexible spending cards.
If you have been involved in a car accident or have a personal injury claim, our office has experience working with automobile insurance carriers and attorneys to get your claims filed and save you the hassle of all the paperwork.
If you have been injured at work and your employer has opened a claim with their insurance carrier, we can file a claim directly to the worker’s compensation carrier on your behalf.
*Please notify us when scheduling if you were involved in an automobile accident or had a work injury.
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At Lifecity Chiropractic, we explain everything in advance. The more you understand who we are, what we do and why we do it, the better results you will enjoy.
So, check us out here. Poke around. Get to know us. Then, contact us to make an appointment so we can get to know you.
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