I think it’s very important to take x-rays with people that come in and have issues.

We need to make sure it’s safe to do an adjustment before we can do any kind of treatment.

If you’re not taking an x-ray, you really don’t know what you’re working on. You can’t figure out what the problem is and what your goal is.

I’m going to show you the reason why.

Why Do We Take X-rays?

A patient came in recently, and if we would not have X-rayed this person, then we could have potentially done some damage.

That’s why we always make sure we x-ray the patients, and why I would advise getting an x-ray before you get any kind of adjustments, especially if you’re having neck or back pain.

A patient came in a couple of days ago experiencing severe neck pain after reaching down to pick up an empty box. There was no injury, and no trauma.

She started getting neck pain that radiated into her shoulder.

After the consultation, we did the exam with some range of motion test, some orthopedic tests, and found out where the problem was.

I thought it was a good idea to take an x-ray, and it’s a good thing I did!

We should see a normal curve in the x-ray, but this patient’s x-ray was not normal.

Then I noticed a bone spur. That’s osteoarthritis.

That tells me that we’ve had an issue that’s been going on for quite a number of years to get this bad.
Degenerative disc disease and arthritis have now set in.

The back of one vertebra back further than the other, which means one is shifted forward. This is spondylolisthesis, which is major.

We have a chronic condition, we’ve got arthritis, disc degeneration, spondylo, and ligament instability.

Something innocuous — trying to pick up an empty box — caused all this pain.

It’s going to take this patient quite a bit of time and treatment to feel better, but the good news is — we found this before it’s permanent.The bonus spurs haven’t fused.

There’s still some disk space left, so can still work on this.

Are we going to be able to get her back to 100%, like we would have if we saw her 5 or 6 years ago when this originally started?

No, but we can definitely improve her quality of life, get to where she can actually move around and live her life.

It’s a good thing that I took this x-ray.

Otherwise, we never would have found out the extent of this issue.