Services

During a conversation and review of your health history, we try to determine if you’re a good candidate for chiropractic care. We’ll ask a few questions and do a lot of listening.

The consultation also gives you an opportunity to tour our office, interview your chiropractor and learn a bit more about chiropractic. Since ours is a partnership approach to better health, it’s important that you’re comfortable with the personalities, procedures and policies of our office. The consultation is a great way to find that out.

If we don’t think we can help, we’ll tell you. If we think we can help, and you agree, we can usually proceed to the next step, which is a thorough examination. Our patients appreciate the fact that we explain everything in advance!

This is a general evaluation that may include the recording of height, weight, pulse, blood pressure and similar objective measurements.

These examinations test your ability to turn, bend and move key joints of your skeletal system through their expected range of motion.

We’ll test your dermatomes, deep tendon reflexes, muscle strength and other aspects pointing to the health of your central nervous system.

These tests can include postural evaluations, static and dynamic palpation and other procedures to reveal neurological problems.

Thermography is a way of measuring tiny differences in skin temperature that can reveal nervous system disturbances.

Diagnostic imaging can help locate any bone abnormalities, fractures and reveal your spine’s phase of spinal decay. X-rays also give us a greater understanding of your spine in terms of its alignment and structure. We find we get better results in a shorter space of time as these allow us to be more precise and specific with our adjustments.

We use specific muscle testing to localise and determine how best to correct your spine and nervous system.

This is a system of spinal evaluation combined with a handheld adjusting instrument that delivers a consistent, low-force thrust.

First the Evaluation

We begin by analysing how well your spine moves. We test how well you turn and bend. While you’re lying face down, we’ll evaluate the length of your legs. This simple procedure can reveal significant differences in leg lengths. This time-tested protocol tells us if subluxations exist and their location. It also helps us know when to adjust and when not to adjust.

The Adjusting Instrument

The Activator Methods® Adjusting Instrument is a handheld spring-loaded tool that delivers a consistent low-force, high-speed thrust. Because it’s many times faster than adjustments delivered by hand, the body rarely tightens to resist, making adjustments comfortable and effective. It’s also helpful for adjusting elbows, wrists, knees and other joints of the body.

The Follow Up

After your adjustment, we retest to make sure changes have been produced. Testing afterwards helps us deliver high-quality care and high levels of patient satisfaction.

After identifying which vertebrae have lost their normal motion or position, a specific manual thrust is applied to free up “stuck” spinal joints.

At Mt Eden Chiropractic, we use an adjusting style commonly referred to as “Diversified.” First, an analysis of your spine is performed. This can initially involve a case history and X-ray pictures of your spine.

Subsequent visits may include motion palpation, with the chiropractor feeling the spinal joints move as you turn and bend. Or, a leg check may be performed, to uncover an imbalance in the neck or lower spine.

With the malposition of one or more spinal bones identified, a specific manual thrust is administered. The direction, speed, depth and angle that are used is the result of years of experience, practice and a thorough understanding of spinal mechanics.

The energy delivered during the thrust may produce a slight “popping” sound from the shifting of gas and fluids in the joint. This sound may be interesting, but is not a guide as to the value or effectiveness of the adjustment.

While improving spinal biomechanics can reduce nervous system interferences, virtually all joints of the body can be adjusted to help restore proper range of motion.

This full spine approach relies on X-rays and a heat-sensing instrument for a thorough evaluation and documented results.

Named after its developer, Dr. Clarence Gonstead, this approach came from his engineering background. His “foundation principle” explains how a subluxation pattern in one area of the spine can produce compensatory changes in another.

A Thorough Evaluation

After studying your health history, we conduct a complete examination. This generally includes full spine X-rays and precise analysis. Using a small heat-sensing instrument, subluxation patterns are revealed by slight differences in temperature. Finally, we use our fingertips to “palpate” or feel the location of individual bones and how they may differ from their normal position.

Full Spine Correction

With a complete picture of your spine it’s time to make the needed corrections.

To adjust your lower spine and pelvis, we’ll have you lie on your side. Subluxations in the middle back are corrected as you assume a comfortable kneeling position. When you are seated, we can restore the integrity of your spine without twisting or rotating your neck.

Sometimes you’ll hear a slight “popping” sound that we call cavitation. Sometimes you won’t. Either way, better health is on the way!

Safe and Effective

The Gonstead Technique is acknowledged as one of the safest systems of evaluating and caring for the spine.

Thompson Terminal Point technique is a system of analysis and a special table that reduces the amount of energy needed to adjust your spine.

The Thompson Technique, developed by Dr. J. Clay Thompson, has evolved into a system of analysis and a way of adjusting the full spine. The combination produces precise adjustments and high levels of patient comfort.

A System of Analysis

Early chiropractors noticed that subluxations would produce the appearance of a short, or contracted leg. Using a protocol of comparing leg lengths while the patient turned their head, helped determine whether the subluxation was in the upper, middle or lower back.

Terminal Point Table

What patients often notice first is our segmental “drop” table. After stepping onto the platform, the table gently lowers you into a horizontal position. This helps preserve any leg length inequality.

Individual cushions or “drop pieces” located along our table surface support each area of your spine until the thrust is delivered. Then, each drop piece gently gives way, reducing the amount of energy needed to move a specific spinal segment.

Popular and Patented

So unique is this approach, Dr. Thompson was granted a patent in 1955. Since then, because of its precision and patient results, it is a technique used around the world.

Sacro Occipital Technique helps normalize the relationship between the pelvis and the head, using gravity to make the necessary correction.

SOT stands for Sacro Occipital Technique, a chiropractic technique designed to help normalise the relationship between the pelvis and the head.

The Foundation

The integrity of the spine, and the function of the nervous system it protects, begins with the pelvis. This foundation is constantly subjected to the pull of gravity. When stability is lost, it produces effects throughout your body.

The Cranium

Proper control of every cell and tissue of your body is affected by bones of the skull and tension on your spinal cord. Think of your spinal cord as a string on a harp. Is it flexible and healthy? Or stretched and drawn tight?

Blocking the Spine

We use wedge-shaped devices known as “blocks” to help correct your spine and properly “tune” your nervous system. By knowing exactly where to position these blocks, we use the weight of your body to make corrections, naturally.

Safe and Comfortable

By using gravity and your own body to effect correction, new healthier patterns of spinal function can result. Along with safe, consistent results, SOT is known for emphasising patient comfort.

Not only is your skull made up of many bones, their ability to move can profoundly affect your health which is why we rely on this powerful technique.

The bones of the skull move. Conventional wisdom suggests that the skull is a solid structure, like a helmet, protecting the brain. Yet, the 22 bones of the skull move, with a subtle rhythmic pulsing (about 10-14 per minute) that turns out to be a significant factor in our health. The Bio Cranial Technique we use unlocks this surprising, and often overlooked connection.

Compensation Reactions

Bones of the skull can often become injured during the birth process. Besides the interruption of the rhythmic pulsing, once the distorted, torqued or warped pattern is established, a compensatory “distortion” can occur along the supporting spinal column below. This can set the stage for a variety of health issues, many without obvious symptoms.

The Physiology

The rhythmic movements felt along the joints of the different bones of the skull, called sutures, can be felt with the fingertips. Restrictions are thought to interfere with the normal circulation of cerebrospinal fluid. This fluid serves as a “shock absorber” for the delicate tissues of the brain. By detecting aberrations, we can uncover the underlying cause of many ailments, especially those of the jaw and other parts of your head.

Those who have had traditional chiropractic care often remark that after receiving Bio Cranial work there is a better resolution of their chronic subluxations.

Simply put, when we move the bones of your skull, it allows your entire body to work better.

Testing the strength of specific muscles of your body helps us find structural, chemical and mental problems and monitor your results.

Applied Kinesiology borrows from many different disciplines, using muscle testing as a guide for diagnosis and patient care.

The ancient Chinese observed that every muscle in the body links to a specific organ, gland or acupuncture meridian. By testing the strength of its related muscle, we get a glimpse of the condition of that particular organ or tissue.

Simple muscle testing helps us uncover the structural, chemical and mental problem that may be in your body. It can also direct us to the best options to restore your health.

Finding the Problem

First, we review the history of your health situation. This is followed by a thorough physical examination. Instrumentation and laboratory tests may be needed. Then we analyse your posture, the way you walk, turn and bend. By combining these findings with muscle testing, we develop a unique insight into the cause(s) of your problem.

Resolving the Problem

With an understanding of your problem, we select from a variety of healing modalities, which may include:

• Chiropractic adjustments
• Joint mobilisation
• Acupuncture meridian therapy
• Nutrition supplementation
• Osteopathic cranial techniques
• Muscle rehabilitation

As the discipline of Applied Kinesiology has been refined, it has broadened to include the evaluation of vascular, lymphatic systems and cerebrospinal fluid circulation.

While lying on your side, we’ll use our hands to deliver a quick contact to the upper bones of your spine. Your body does the rest.

The upper cervical spine is one of the most nerve-rich areas of your spine. Even subtle changes here can have whole-body effects. Because of its importance, this special adjusting technique has evolved, producing positive results for a variety of health problems.

Comfortable and Relaxed

After a thorough examination revealing the relationship between the skull and the two uppermost bones of the spine, you’ll be positioned comfortably on our adjusting table, usually lying on your side. The more relaxed you are, the more effective your adjustment.

Ultra Quick

Then, we use our hands to deliver a super-fast thrust to the upper bones of your spine. Experience suggests that the best results are obtained with the greatest speed and the lightest force possible. Once the energy is delivered to your spine, my hands are quickly removed from the contact point so as not to interfere with the natural recoil of your spine.

Your Body Does the Adjustment!

The wisdom of your body uses this energy to “reset” the relationship between the spinal segments and your head. All I do is give your body a precise nudge, which allows your body to “right itself” into a more normal pattern. Health can return as the neurological insults are reduced.