Your First Visit
One of the most common things we hear at the Atlas Family Health Center is about how warm and inviting the clinic is. We help our patients feel at home and go out of our way to avoid the cold and hostile feel that is so common in health care offices.
Please come 15-30 minutes early to your first scheduled appointment to fill out the required paperwork. If you have any insurance information or past medical records (medications taken, copies of X-rays or MRIs, etc.), please bring those with you as well so the doctor and/or our insurance department can have a chance to look them over.
It is important to note that initial consultations are always complementary at the Atlas Family Health Center, and you have nothing to lose in discussing your condition with the doctor to find out if we can help you. Once all your intake information is gathered, one of the Atlas Family Health Center physicians will take a very detailed and thorough health history.
Based on the information gathered in the consultation, you may choose to receive a comprehensive physical examination. Orthopedic, neurological and chiropractic examination procedures will be used to determine whether or not you are a candidate for treatment at the Atlas Family Health Center. If it is found that there is an upper cervical cause to your condition, highly specific x-rays will be taken to determine the exact magnitude of any structural abnormalities.
Be assured that radiological exams are performed only when clinically necessary to insure proper patient care. The pictures of your spine are taken using our digital high frequency x-ray unit, which requires drastically less radiation exposure compared to traditional x-ray machines.
The films will be analyzed by your doctor who will determine exact measurements of misalignment. These measurements will take into account the individual’s precise degree of misalignment of the vertebra, as well as any unique genetic variation in the upper cervical region. These personalized measurements allow the doctor to effectively make the right adjustment to realign your entire spinal column. The office staff will then schedule you for your follow-up visit or “Report of Findings” where the doctor will review his findings with you, and make appropriate recommendations specific to your case.
Please allow up to 90 minutes for this first visit.
Second Visit
When you return on the second visit, the doctor will take adequate time to explain all of your examination and x-ray findings to you. The doctor will fully explain the Advanced Orthogonal procedure, and any specific treatment recommendations that will help you start progressing on the road towards better health.
Following the Advanced Orthogonal correction, you will spend the next 10-15 minutes resting to allow the body to adapt to its new alignment. The doctor will then take post-adjustment x-rays and repeat the refined analysis to determine exactly how your body responded to the correction. This is typically done only after the initial adjustment, and helps the doctors to know if any “fine tuning” of you correction will need to take place in the future.
Please allow another 60-90 minutes for this 2nd appointment.
Following Up
Our goal is to make a lasting correction, not repetitive adjustments. At the Atlas Family Health Center, we will closely monitor your body’s ability to maintain spinal alignment over your first month of care. Keep in mind that these appointments aren’t necessarily to ‘adjust’ you, but rather to monitor how well your correction is holding in place. One of the major differences here at the Atlas Family Health Center is that you will only receive a correction if it is found that your body has slipped out of proper alignment. There is a saying at the Atlas Family Health Center that “Holding is Healing” – the longer your body can maintain proper structural alignment, the better your body is able to maintain proper nervous system function and facilitate reversal of the degenerative processes. Our goal is to get your body stable enough to dramatically decrease your visit frequency, eventually reaching the point of only needing a few “spinal check-ups” per year.
Aside from the first two visits, most appointments at the Atlas Family Health Center will be 20 minutes or less.Your concerns are important to us. In order to get things moving quickly for you, please call to get scheduled for the first 2 visits right away. These two visits take a little longer to give us the time we need to find out what is causing your problem, and explain it to you. We will also be getting you started on your path to better function using the Advance Orthogonal Procedure.