Spine surgery can be intimidating at first, even when considering the recovery stages.
To reach your natural state after a spinal procedure, you must care for both your body and your mind. There are several ways that one can do this, such as bed rest and letting time pass.
However, to get to peak condition as quickly as possible, it is essential for you to partake in both physical therapy and chiropractic. These two medical fields have a laundry list of individual strengths to them, but when paired together, they act as an essential resource for those who are healing from spinal issues.
Physical Therapy
According to the American Physical Therapy Association, “physical therapists are movement experts who improve quality of life through prescribed exercise, hands-on care, and patient education.” The techniques these specialists practice, such as exercise and electronic stimulation, are meant to help you reach a state of normalcy and/or maintain their health during recovery. Our services include physical therapy, which can provide rehabilitation for surgery post-operates, helping them recover from the surgery with as much care as possible.
These improvements aren’t always instant. Physical therapy typically lasts “anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, with an at-home exercise routine to accompany the PT appointments.” While these help at the moment, once physical therapy sessions end, you will have to hold yourself accountable to keep the routine established by your time in PT. In addition, these practices address a single part of your body, in this instance your spine, rather than focusing on your overall health.
Chiropractic
While physical therapy hones in on treating a specific part of a patient’s body, chiropractic aims to better a person’s overall condition. Using techniques such as “analysis of spine and extremity joint health,” teaching “proper nutrition to support optimal health,” and “teaching patients how to reduce and better handle stress,” chiropractors work on consistently maintaining a stable healthy condition in patients.
This can be done through methods like spinal adjustment, therapeutic stretching, and soft tissue manual therapy. At NJ Spine and Wellness, we have board-certified chiropractors such as Dr. Peter Bufano, who specializes in sports medicine, whiplash, mild traumatic brain injuries, and neurology. In using methods like these, chiropractic allows you to take care of your overall physical and mental well-being. This approach is not as effective when trying to focus on a single part of your body, but it is a tried and true method of recovery for some.
Combining the Two
Obviously, physical therapy and chiropractic each have their own pros and cons. However, if you decide to combine both practices into your daily routine, you would receive a wide range of benefits as opposed to patients that solely choose one or the other. For one, this combo opens up the possibility to customize your treatments in much more versatile ways, harnessing the talents of both branches of treatment to their fullest and maximizing benefits. Plus, regardless of what your goals are with these practices, results are all but guaranteed to be better. Combined with the flexibility and growth that stems from taking two different types of recovery approaches, patients that partake in both care methods will be all the better for it.
Combining physical therapy and chiropractic is the perfect way for spinal surgery patients to partake in during their recovery process. With their individual strengths combining to create an all-around healthy routine, this combination is essential for patients that want to thrive after their surgeries. For more information on how our firm combines these two things, feel free to request an appointment with us or contact our offices!