There’s a turf war between chiropractors and physical therapists. Each one thinks the other is infringing on their turf.
The Chiropractic school I went with had a four-year undergraduate degree and then you go to professional chiropractic school another 3.5 years and an internship.
Physical therapy is very similar now there is a doctor of physical therapy and therapists are doctors of physical therapy. It’s a three-year or six semester program they are required to do similar to an internship.
As a chiropractor, my training focused primarily on mobilization of joints, soft tissues, adjustments of the spine. That’s the core of our training. Physical therapy used to be based on exercise and more rehab for orthopedic type injuries. But the way it’s evolved is physical therapist training involves a lot of manual therapies that we did in chiropractic school. And conversely, in chiropractic school I started to gain a lot of experience and knowledge on exercise and rehabilitation.
That’s why we blended the two specialties in our practice. We work really well together. Research shows that manual therapy combined with some form of exercise is very, very effective treatment for the spine, neck and low back pain.
Different conditions have different indications for treatment. A lot of times we see something in the past and we think that chiropractic isn’t the best fit so we send them out for pain management or injections or a surgical consult. We are both conservative type providers meaning we are first line of defense and hopefully before surgery and maybe we prevent some surgeries and even after surgery getting some patients moving quickly that’s what we’re good at as well.
Chiropractic training and education is evolving because they recognize the importance of exercise associated with some form or manual therapy. Hopefully we’re opening up some other provider’s eyes to this. This is the wave of the future. We’re trying to bring different types of people and service lines together to provide the most effective care to our patients.
You no longer have to choose, Tulsa Spine and Rehab has the specialist to treat your aches and pains. Contact Tulsa Spine and Rehab with any questions you might have.
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