Re: What Happens When A Herniated Disc Heals?/activator technique?

Where'd you hear that? When something is put back it will cause pain. Not true, not true.

The "non-force" techniques were developed to prevent the "ouch". The activator was developed as a non-force technique. I don't use it as such though. I use it as an impact instrument. Works great in that capacity too and a lot of my patients prefer that to adjusting the neck with my hands. And it is a bit more precise. And the results are great especially for cervical disc problems.

But I don't use the activator as a reflex instrument per normal activator technique. I knew how to do that years ago but never had any decent results with it. But as an impact device it's great. And the patients love it.

A properly given adjustment shouldn't hurt. There are two exceptions to that rule. A torticolis and the anterior thoracic adjustment. But in both cases its the owwww - ahhhh type thing. The results are immediate and worth the pain of the adjustment.

Now, cervical disc porblems are tricky even for us chiropractors. The prefered method of treatment is very little cervical rotation when adjusting. So make sure you find a chiropractor that's been around for a while that has the experience to handle cervical disc problems. None of this crack-em and rack-em type stuff just to hear the joints pop.

As a general rule it takes the same amount of time to correct a cervical disc as it does a lumbar disc even though the surounding tissues are a lot less in the cervical spine. In this office it takes one to two weeks and then be careful for a couple of months to let the ligaments that hold it all together heal.

As far as psyching yourself up goes, well, the best thing you can do is relax. The more tense you are the more difficult it is for us to adjust it. Don't panic. It may be a little noisy but if you think about it most of the time it actually tickles. It's the noise that scares you. Usually when that type of noise happens it not good.

Anyway, activator was developed as a non-force adjusting technique. I use it as an impact technique. Very precise and very affective.

Doc Sutter