Expert: Dr. Paul Newhart - 9/6/2008

Question
IS it safe to say doctor, that some techniques work better than others on some people?, and is chiropractic similar to medicine based on techniques verses med. specialties. Is it true if the spine should be addressed as a unit, can the sacral adjustments affect C1 and vise-versa. Is it true that the Atlas method is the most conservative, most scientific, and in some cases most effective and considered to be the front runner in chiropractic upper cervical.  we know all techniques work, we know they get results,the problem is, we need to refer within our field as medicine does, but, only to get the spine as a unit completely healthy for optimum health.

Answer
Yes, some techniques work better than others on different patients.  Yes, and adjustment of the sacrum can affect the upper cervical area.  But...the Atlas method, as far as I know, is NOT the most researched.  You have Pierce, Pierce Stillwagon, Pettibon, and Activator to name a few, that have done very extensive research.  As far as it being most conservative, you can really esoteric and go with NIMMO; soft touch, probably less force than the Orthogonal unit and Yes, I am familiar with the unit. It was just starting to come into it's own when I was in school.  My first exposure to it was back in '92 or '93)  The problem with referring in our field, unlike in medicine, is when an MD refers to a specialist for treatment, their patient only sees them for that problem.  They then return to their MD for continued care.  Too many in our field, when a patient comes in from another chiro.  will "steal" the patient, and may even bad mouth them to the patient.  However, when another chiro. provides a service that you don't, such as low level laser, or decompression, that you know will be beneficial to your patient, you should have no fear to refer to that chiropractor for that treatment.  We have had that situation many times in our office, and I always explain that I am not there to steal a patient away from their chiropractor, and that they, when the treatment is done and the situation resolves, should return to their original treating chiropractor.