Low back pain is the most common complaint in this practice and the one most often treated badly, usually by doing nothing for six weeks or by scanning it in the first three days. The middle path is an examination: which movements are lost, which reproduce the pain, whether the leg is involved, and what the neurological screen shows.
Chiropractic is a reasonable first step when the pain changes with position and movement, when there is a direction that helps and a direction that hurts, when the neurological screen is clean, and when there is no red flag in the history. A segment that has stopped moving properly, with muscle guarding around it, is what this care is built to address.
Direction is worth understanding because it decides what you do at home. Many low back problems have a preference: repeated movement one way eases the pain and draws leg symptoms back toward the spine, while the opposite direction spreads them. Finding which is yours is done by testing rather than guessing, and it usually matters more than anything done on the table.
A short list of findings means conservative care is not where to start. Progressive weakness in a leg or foot, numbness that is spreading, any change in bladder or bowel control, or numbness around the saddle area need urgent assessment rather than an adjustment.
So do the patterns that do not behave mechanically: pain that does not vary with position, night pain that wakes you at the same hour, fever, unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, or a significant fall in an older patient with thin bones. These are uncommon, and identifying them is exactly what the examination is for.
Where conservative care has had a fair run without progress, the next step is in the same building. Physical Therapy when the answer is loading and capacity, Pain Management when it is a structure that needs a needle, and spinal decompression where a disc is involved with leg symptoms. Our lower back pain page covers the whole picture, and MRI for back pain covers when imaging is actually worth having.
A lumbar spine tolerates more than a neck does, so technique choice here is usually about the patient rather than about the region. Diversified, the hands-on adjustment with the audible release, suits most people most of the time. Drop-table adjusting, also called Thompson, is the choice for an acute episode where a hands-on technique would simply be met with guarding. Activator, a handheld instrument giving one light impulse, is the usual answer for an older patient, thin bones, or anyone who would rather not be pushed on.
Spinal decompression is used where a disc is involved and the pain has reached the leg. Dry needling addresses the muscular guarding that often survives a good adjustment. The part that decides the outcome, though, is the two or three things you do at home in the direction the examination identified, repeated often enough to matter.
The escalation runs on one chart. If the picture changes, Physical Therapy, Acupuncture and Pain Management are in the same building, so a change of direction is a conversation rather than a new referral and another wait.
Under Medicare, chiropractic coverage is spinal manipulation only. The examination, imaging and any therapies performed alongside the adjustment are billed separately and are not covered under that benefit. What Medicare covers for chiropractic care goes through it in full, and our Medicare Advantage page covers the plans that add to it.
On commercial plans, Chiropractic is commonly covered with an annual visit cap counted across every provider you have seen this year. Our team verifies your benefits before your first visit, so the number is known in advance. The insurance page has the full payer list for both states.
Colorado (16 clinics) — Academy in Colorado Springs, Arapahoe, Central Park, Downtown Denver, Greeley, Harmony in Fort Collins, Highlands Ranch, Interquest in north Colorado Springs, Lafayette, Lakewood, Lone Tree, Lowry, Northglenn, Southlands, Tenderfoot in south Colorado Springs, Wadsworth.
Arizona (6 clinics) — Chandler, Deer Valley, Dunlap in north Phoenix, Mesa, Peoria, Westgate in Glendale.
Each clinic page lists the address, the hours and what a first visit involves. No referral is needed for Chiropractic, and our goal is to get you in within the same week.
For mechanical low back pain, which is most of it, yes. The examination comes first and decides whether adjusting is appropriate, and what you do between visits usually decides whether the change holds.
Usually not at the start. Imaging changes the plan when there are neurological signs, when conservative care has had a fair run without progress, or when the history raises something other than a mechanical problem. Otherwise it often finds age-related changes that were not causing your pain.
Keep moving within what is tolerable. Prolonged rest generally makes mechanical back pain worse rather than better. Which specific movements to favor is what the examination works out, because one direction usually helps and another usually does not.
Most mechanical episodes improve over weeks rather than days, and the pattern across the first fortnight tells you more than any single day. Your clinician should tell you what they expect and should say so if the picture changes.
Progressive weakness in a leg or foot, spreading numbness, numbness around the saddle area, or any change in bladder or bowel control. Those need urgent assessment rather than conservative care.
Diversified, drop-table and Activator adjusting, chosen to suit the joint and the patient. Spinal decompression where a disc is involved with leg symptoms, and dry needling for the muscular component that survives the adjustment.
Medicare covers spinal manipulation only. The examination, imaging and any therapies performed alongside it are billed separately and are not covered under that benefit.
No. Chiropractic at Mountain View Pain Center does not require one, and neither do Physical Therapy, Pain Management or Acupuncture. If your own plan requires one, our team will tell you when they verify your benefits.
Day or night, seven days a week — and we’ll text you back to get you scheduled. No referral is needed, and our goal is to see you within the same week. Colorado scheduling runs through one number for every Colorado clinic: (720) 749-5599.
