Have neck pain? Back pain? Have you wanted to just replace your discs to get relief? Is the pain that bad? For many
West Des Moines neck pain and back pain sufferers, it is. They want to try
anything to get rid of the pain. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa understands and takes a
conservative, non-operative approach to neck and back pain relief. And
Executive Chiropractic of Iowa knows to carefully monitor our spine pain patients for
appropriate milestones in their pain relief journey. If those don’t come as
expected, Executive Chiropractic of Iowa knows how to get you to the next healthcare step be
that more imaging or a neurosurgical or orthopedic consultation. However, the
journey to back pain and/or neck pain relief starts at Executive Chiropractic of Iowa for so many people.
So let’s look at the idea of replacing a faulty part. Now,
this often works well for a broken car or bicycle, but for the human body,
things don’t always work the way they should. Now, the practice of replacements for
knees and hips has worked out pretty well. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa cares for many
patients with new knees and hips. How many West Des Moines friends do you
know with these? But there is a longer history to these interventions to track how
patients do. With newer replacement parts, like a new spine artificial disc,
the history is just unfolding.
A new paper reports that despite their use for nearly 10
years, artificial discs for the cervical spine are not effectively proven. This
reports’ researchers share that few of the follow up studies collect data beyond
2 years despite the fact that there have been so many replacements done. On a
positive note, researchers share that the implants do preserve neck mobility
for a while. On a less positive note, the ability of artificial discs to
prevent adjacent segment is not proven. Plus, the cost effectiveness is also not
established to be better than other approaches. (1)
So what is this “adjacent segment disease” that these
artificial disc reports mention? It’s a term referring to potential
complication of spinal fusion or disc replacement: disc degeneration at the
disc level above or below a replaced disc or spinal fusion. For example, if your spine is fused from L3 to
L5, the L2 disc may be placed under so much stress that it degenerates. (2) As
a matter of fact, 29% of patients who have 3 thoracolumbar levels or more fused
experience adjacent level disease. (3)
Executive Chiropractic of Iowa offers chiropractic care with conservative, non-operative care with Cox Technic as the
first step in managing spine pain. This care addresses the affected,
pain-originating spinal segment in hopes of sparing the adjacent segments.
Before making a decision to have a disc replacement surgery
or a spinal fusion performed for back pain or neck pain, consider consulting
your West Des Moines chiropractor at Executive Chiropractic of Iowa. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa offers its use of the
research-documented and evidence-based Cox Technic. Why? It’s safe. It’s
clinically effective. It’s gentle. It doesn’t harm the adjacent segments. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa’s comprehensive examination
leads to an individualized treatment plan just for you. Our 50% Rule and goal (50%
relief of pain in 30 days) may set you toward relief without surgery (and/or
its potential complication, adjacent segment disease), without fusion, and
without new, unproven parts.
So try Executive Chiropractic of Iowa's approach to back
pain and neck pain relief before surgery…or after if you find yourself with
continued neck pain and/or arm pain. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa confidently offers its
treatment plan for neck pain relief for West Des Moines back and neck pain
patients pre or post-surgery. We look forward to seeing you.
Contact Executive Chiropractic of Iowa today.