I received a copy of a spinal X-Ray report from a patient’s medical doctor last week and the conclusion of the medical radiologist was, “alignment is normal.” This is a common conclusion on many X-ray reports. So, if the alignment is considered normal then why do I need to get adjusted?
Well, first of all, your definition of alignment depends on what it is you are looking for. In medical radiology reports, the radiologist who reads the X-rays and then sends them to your medical doctor is looking for fractures, dislocations, scoliosis, infections or tumours that might cause a major misalignment of the spine. This is usually no small deviation.
So, when a report comes across my desk that says the alignment is normal and there is no evidence of fracture, dislocation or other bony anomaly they are absolutely correct, based on what they are looking for. But I still ALWAYS read every X-ray with my own eyes.
Why do I take the time to reread X-rays that I have the report for? Well, from a Chiropractic lens, I am looking for small misalignments that we call subluxations. A subluxation is any misalignment, no matter how big or how small, that distorts the spine and produces nerve interference. Often times the subluxations we find, are out of alignment by only a millimeter or two. So, if you were quickly scanning an X-ray, most often you glance right over it!
To see is to know. To not see is to guess.
Would you go to a blind dentist? Probably not! Blind people often have heightened senses like hearing and touch to make up for a lack of sight, but you likely wouldn’t want that person drilling or filling your teeth without being able to see what they are doing.
With Chiropractic, we have trained our hands to have a heightened sense of touch (like the blind), and maybe you thought that we have X-ray vision in our fingertips! It may seem like that at times, but the truth is we still rely on modern day technology to keep you well-adjusted because what something feels like on the surface of the skin, may be completely different under all that tissue.
With the upper neck in particular, your Atlas (C1) and Axis (C2), we rely on X-ray which is a 2-dimenisional image to create a 3-dimensional representation of how the bones misalign. We want to know if the bones have shifted left or right, forward or backwards and if they have rotated. We do this by taking three separate X-ray views and mark them using specific measurements.
Between C1 and C2 there is a possibility of 274 different combinations that the bones can subluxate! This coupled with the fact that every human being’s anatomy is slightly different, makes our job tricky at times.
Being that our objective is to specifically detect and correct subluxations, so you can live your best life, we want the tools that will allow us to do that at a higher level. This is why we took the time, effort and money to invest in an Upper Cervical Digital X-ray machine in our office, so we no longer have to rely on poor quality images and long wait times at provincially funded X-ray facilities.
And don’t worry, we are not going to just start lining everyone up for X-rays because we have a machine, especially if we are happy with how your body is doing. But we will be updating some X-rays in those who need it. And as far as radiation goes, our machine uses the newest digital technology and you get higher doses of radiation by carrying your cell phone in your pocket and staring at a computer screen everyday.
We hope this answers some questions you may have had about X-rays and we would love to actually be able to say the ‘alignment is normal’, because you are well adjusted!
Dr. Thom