My Doctor is a Chiropractor. Do I need to see a specialist?

    The simplest answer to that is maybe, maybe not.  Exactly what is a specialist anyway?  Specialists are doctors who essentially treat a very narrow range of conditions.  As far as most of our patient"s and their injuries are concerned, a specialist is usually an orthopedist or neurologist.  Some are orthopedic surgeons or neurosurgeons.  Their specialty is in the treatment of spines, or knees, or maybe just spines or just knees or just hands, etc, etc.
     Of course your doctor of chiropractic is a kind of specialist meaning that we only treat disorders or injuries of the spine or the extremities like the joints of the arms or legs.  We don't call ourselves specialists but that is essentially what we do. 
     So, do you need to see a "specialist"?  Again maybe or maybe not.  Your doctor of chiropractic will examine, diagnose and treat your neck, back, shoulder or knee injury with various physical treatments which are essentially drug free with the exception of patient's possibly taking over the counter medications such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen or even aspirin.  We monitor our patients progress and change their treatment plans accordingly.  If, however, a patient's injury is not improving as quickly as we think it should or if the injury is serious enough to warrant it, we will, in many cases, refer our patients to specialists to see if the specialist can offer other treatments in addition to that which we are doing.  
     Sometimes a specialist will prescribe a medication or suggest some sort of injection to assist the patient's recovery.  On rare instances, the specialist might even recommend surgery.  But the main point is, if you need to see a specialist, your doctor of chiropractic will refer you to one.
     Occasionally we get patients who want to see one right away.  That is usually not a problem.  They simply need to speak with their doctor of chiropractic about it.  There are many good reasons to refer a patient to a specialist for a consultation.