Physiotherapy Vs Chiropractic

Which one is for you?

By Afrina Ghazali | May 27th, 2022

When it comes to relieving pain in the muscles, you would usually resort with seeing a physiotherapist. Or some might wonder if it would be better to meet a chiropractist instead? This article will summarise the similarities and differences between the two as well as highlight which one of the two would suit you.

What is Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is a physical therapy that usually associated with rehabilitative programme with end goal is to relief pain and promote enhanced mobility. Physiotherapists will normally assess your conditions and come up with a right approach of exercises or stretches to practice. 

Physiotherapy also plays important role to encouraging patients to feel that they could be in control of their rehabilitation and could cover every part of the patients' daily needs and care from correct diet, regular exercises to posture and breathing.

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a treatment often opted as a complimentary or alternative therapy. The trreatment are not necessarily done for those experiencing trauma or severe injuries. 

Chiropractic is practiced by applying force to the joints and muscles around the spine, hence it is also known as the spinal manipulation. In usual cases, a short shard thrusts will be applied to the spine while the chiropractor gradually move the joints through different positions to improve the general movement.

The Similarities

Both the treatments aim to treat health conditions related to the spine which could include neurological tissues, nervous system, mobility and functionality wise. They are focused on treating pain especially on the neck, back and lower back region. They also target to treat repetitive motion injuries, whiplash injuries, sports injuries and a lot more.

Basically they have the same goal but with different approaches. Either way, in both cases, it's crucial that they evaluate the patients' symptoms while gathering a thorough background history. Listed below are more points that prove they complement one another. 

The Differences

While both the treatments' focus is to balance the whole body, physiotherapy tends to focus towards muscles and movements whereby chiropractic tends to focus more towards the spine.

In most cases, a course of physiotherapy is often applied after a severe trauma or injury. A simple summary of further comparisons between the two are shown below:

Which one should you go for?

Both instances of physiotherapy and chiropractic are good options to help those with nerve pain. The objectives of both procedures are too similar, you might get confused. To decide the best that would match your condition, you can refer the info below:

If your condition requires, you might have to go for both therapies but it's best that you stick with one since the two professionals are not in direct communication, therefore there is a chance that one's approach could contradict the other's.

 

Check out the details of the procedures below:

Physiotherapy

Chiropractic


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