Am I adjusting or checking too much or too little? I ask myself this frequently. I was such a “test junkie” I probably over-adjusted for a period of time in my 29 years of practice. I have to remind myself how I got great results after my first Activator seminar in 1981 before we even taught all of those tests. Also, it doesn’t help with my perfectionist side of my personality to let a small amount of leg length reactivity go.
It is a good idea to ask yourself and evaluate your results with your patients. Am I adjusting and checking enough or too much? There are time factors to consider. We all need to value not only our patient’s time schedule, but value our own services for their true worth. Most chiropractors are very giving, patient-serving doctors. That doesn’t mean you have to spend 15 minutes per patient and perform at least 50 Activator tests on them. A 2-minute, 5-adjustment treatment can be just as effective as a 15-minute, 50-adjustment treatment. Which way is right?
The Protocol outlined in The Activator Method, Second Edition provides some answers.
1. Always start with the Basic Scan. Once you approach the area of chief complaint, both biomechanically and neurologically, then you can start adding extra tests.
2. Make sure you utilize all your Positions in areas of chronic subluxation and the active complaint areas. Every time you go from Position #1, to #2, then #3 and so on, you are accumulating neurology.
3. Look for the BIG change in leg length reactivity. This should give you more confidence in giving your patient the best adjustment. Remind yourself how the joints are coupled. Don’t let yourself get caught up in minutiae. Follow our chiropractic philosophy of the “whole.”
4. Add your extra tests relative to the chronic subluxations and patient complaint. In the back of the textbook is a great reference to help you remember all the additional tests per area. Utilize this by copying and putting it in each or your adjusting rooms. If you are stagnating with a patient’s progress, make some notes of tests to perform prior to the visit.
5. For extra tests not in the textbook, look through your manuals from the Advanced seminars and make yourself a list. Add a new test each day or week to focus on until you have confidence to be able to see how patterns emerge per conditions. “Favorite” tests will start to appear as you are in practice longer and utilize the new tests. Instead of performing all 45 knee tests, start with your favorites, or “majors” as I like to call them. On subsequent visits, start adding others. Over time you will find tests that seem best per condition.
6. At the end of your treatment, take a few seconds to ask your patients if there is anything else they would like for you to check or focus on. This is a great way to instill confidence in your patients, demonstrating how you care about them and their treatment. It is also a great step to take to assess if you are under testing or under adjusting.
Dr. Rebecca Fischer, DC, is an Activator Methods Clinical Advisory Board member and longtime clinical instructor.
on Oct 28th, 2011 at 8:00 am
Dr. Fischer,
You are point on! Great information and reminders to the Doctors. Thank you for sharing! This will be very helpful for the Doctors and their patients.
Dr. Watts
on Oct 29th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Dr. Fischer,
You are always so inspiring. Activator gives me the best and most accurate results in my 20 years as a chiropractor. Thanks for your expertise and your focus in helping other doctors.
Dr Ted Marriott, D.C.
Pasadena, CA
on Nov 1st, 2011 at 8:37 am
I tend to Stress Test and Pressure Test, pre- and post- all the “usual suspects” then use the Basic Scan to finish up in case I missed anything. So, by definition, I probably test too much and adjust too much… but I am working on it.
The trouble is if the Scan doesn’t balance the legs and keep them balanced, I have to go looking for what’s causing the trouble anyway. Seems like there is always work in the usual places, so getting that out of the way and “looking” for work as I go ends up making sense.
Personally, I have developed an instinct for finding the “majors” and since I try not to be distracted by the patient’s complaints, sometimes they relate, sometimes they do not. When that works it’s great; when it doesn’t I keep looking with more and more tests.
Still, especially with newer patients, I wonder if just running the Basic Scan and adjusting what shows up there might be best. There is a balance between the risk of overdoing it and the risk of not getting the job done fast enough – the patient may run out of patience:-)
Activator does give us the tools to “look” much easier, quicker and more effectively and the tools to deal with more issues equally easier, quicker and arguably more effectively. Since day one it’s made my day to day job a breeze by comparison, even if I do tend to take the slower approach.