How many chiropractic adjustments does it take to feel better?

Common Chiropractic Adjustment Frequencies To achieve maximum benefits, most types of injuries and pain will need between four and twelve sessions. Ongoing maintenance is used to prevent pain from returning and to prevent additional injuries from forming due to misalignment of the spine. The general rule of thumb with chiropractic treatment is to spend 1 to 4 weeks of treatment at 2-3 visits per week and then determine how the condition responds. It is recommended that once improvements begin to be seen in patients, the frequency of treatment should decrease.

If all a patient wants is to “feel better,” then two or maybe three appointments may be all that's needed. But keep in mind that how things feel isn't always a good indicator of how things really are. The spine and nervous system have the built-in ability to adapt and compensate for dysfunction in an attempt to improve symptoms. By the time the body has lost the ability to compensate more, the patient visits a chiropractor and says, “I have had this pain for three days.

In reality, the patient is likely to have had this dysfunction for much longer; his body simply gave up three days ago. People with more serious injuries can expect longer recovery times. Usually, people with broken bones or fractures will see a healing time that ranges from 5 to 6 weeks. If the result of the injury was a ligament or tendon tear in the spine, improvement may take 6 to 8 weeks.

The longest recovery time will be for an injury related to the discs and cartilage of the spine, which could take 3 months or more.