Questions and answers

No. Chiropractors are primary-contact practitioners, so you can book directly and most people do. Your insurance may be a different matter — some plans want a referral before they will pay even though the law does not require one — so it is worth one phone call to your insurer before your first visit. We will see you either way.

Usually not. There is a quick pressure and often an audible pop, which is gas moving in the joint fluid and not bones grinding or anything being put back in. Most people find it a relief rather than painful. Being a little sore afterwards is common and normal for a day or two, the way you are sore after unfamiliar exercise. Sharp or increasing pain afterwards is not normal, and you should ring us if you get it.

No, and anyone who tells you it is is telling you a story. The sound is a bubble of gas forming in the fluid inside the joint when the surfaces are separated quickly. It is not a bone moving back, it is not a vertebra going in, and how loud it is tells you nothing at all about how well the treatment worked. Some very effective techniques make no sound whatsoever.

No, and if a clinic tells you otherwise you should leave it. Most problems we see are done in four to eight visits. Some people choose to come back occasionally when something flares, which is a reasonable thing to want and a completely different thing from an open-ended plan sold to you at the first appointment. We do not sell packages and we agree a review date in advance.

No. We do not claim it can, and we will not treat you or your child for any of those things. Chiropractic works on the musculoskeletal system — spine, joints, muscles and the nerves irritated by them. Claims that adjusting a spine treats asthma, allergies, ear infections, colic, digestion, blood pressure, infertility or immunity are made without good evidence. Please see your doctor for all of those.

Neck manipulation is generally safe and serious complications are rare, but rare is not never, and you are entitled to a straight answer rather than a reassuring one. We screen for the circumstances that make it unwise, we will tell you if we think your neck should be left alone, and we can treat a neck perfectly well without high-velocity manipulation. If you would prefer we did not, say so — you will not have to argue about it. The risks and safety page sets all of this out at length.

Not here, and most people do not need them. Imaging is useful when the history or the examination points at something specific — a suspected fracture, a red flag, a nerve problem that is not settling — and it is close to useless as a routine screen, because plenty of people with perfectly comfortable backs have alarming-looking scans. When you do need imaging we refer you for it and read the report with you.

Then we say so and point you at whoever can, and we would rather do that at visit two than visit twelve. That might be your family doctor, an orthopaedic surgeon, a neurologist, a rheumatologist, a physical therapist or a pain clinic. We write to them, we send what we found, and we do not charge you for the referral.

We are in network with most major plans and we will check your benefits before your first visit if you give us the details when you book. Chiropractic coverage varies enormously — some plans give you unlimited visits, some give you twelve a year, some want a referral, some pay nothing. We tell you what yours does before you owe anything. The insurance page goes through it.

Yes, and a lot of people do. Dr. Bautista sees most of our pregnant patients and works side-lying with bolsters and low force — nothing she does involves a twist through the abdomen. Chiropractic care during pregnancy is for the aching back, pelvis and hips that pregnancy causes. It is not a treatment for anything to do with the baby, and we make no claims about the birth.

Only if there is a musculoskeletal reason to. Children get back and neck pain from sport, from bags and from falls, and that is worth looking at. We do not treat children for colic, reflux, ear infections, sleeping or behaviour, we will say so plainly if that is why you are coming, and we are perfectly happy to examine a child and tell you nothing needs doing.

For a sudden lock-up, often within two or three visits, and if nothing at all has changed by the fourth we will stop and think again rather than book a fifth. Long-running pain moves more slowly and more unevenly, and the honest measure there is what you can do rather than what you feel — whether you got through a shift, slept a night, carried the shopping. We agree a review date so this is a conversation and not a drift.