What Can a Chiropractor in Clarksville TN Help With?
A chiropractor examines and treats problems of the muscles, joints and nerves, and most of all pain in the back, neck and joints. At Source Chiropractic in Clarksville, our chiropractors see people with low back and neck pain, disc problems and nerve pain that runs into a leg or an arm, sore shoulders and knees, heel pain, sports and overuse injuries, back and pelvic pain during pregnancy, and children from newborns to age 18.
A first visit starts with what you want to do again: sleep without back pain, turn your head while driving, get back to a walk you've given up. Then comes a history and an exam, which is how we look for what's causing it, and you'll hear what we found before we recommend anything. Care here can include chiropractic adjustments, spinal decompression, dry needling, Class IV laser therapy, StemWave and rehab exercises, chosen for what the exam finds. If what we find isn't something we treat, we'll tell you and point you to the right doctor.
The new-patient chiropractic offer has its own terms. Book online or contact us.
What does a chiropractor treat?
Chiropractors treat problems of the neuromusculoskeletal system: the bones, joints, muscles, ligaments and nerves that hold you up and move you. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the job as focused on pain in the back, neck and joints. A chiropractor reviews your history and concerns, examines your posture, spine and reflexes, adjusts the spine and other joints, may add treatments such as heat or cold, advises on health and lifestyle, such as exercise and nutrition, and refers you to other health professionals when that's what you need. Chiropractors typically hold a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree, which takes about four years on top of at least three years of undergraduate study, and every state requires them to be licensed.
In Tennessee, a chiropractic physician examines patients, makes a differential diagnosis, and diagnoses and treats neuromuscular, musculoskeletal and related conditions. That scope covers adjustment and manipulation, manual and rehabilitative care, physical-agent modalities, mechanical, electrical and thermal methods, and referral when a problem falls outside it. So chiropractors don't just treat back pain. A shoulder or a knee is a joint like any other, with muscles, tendons and ligaments around it.
What we see at Source Chiropractic in Clarksville
These are problems we see at our Clarksville office, each with a page of its own:
- Low back pain, from a stiff, sore back to pain that runs into the hip. We examine and treat the joints, muscles and discs of the low back.
- Neck pain, including a stiff neck after desk work or a bad night's sleep and neck pain that runs into the shoulder or arm.
- Sciatica and disc injuries: pain, tingling or numbness that travels down a leg, and herniated, bulging or worn discs in the low back or neck. This is where spinal decompression comes in.
- Shoulder pain, including rotator cuff and tendon pain and a shoulder that's stiff when you reach or lift.
- Knee pain, including stiff, sore knees, minor arthritis pain and knees strained by sport or overuse.
- Plantar fasciitis and heel pain: pain under the heel that's often worst on your first steps.
- Sports and overuse injuries of the muscles and joints.
- Back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. We regularly treat pregnant patients, using pregnancy pillows, a modified technique and generally less force.
- Children and teenagers, from newborns to age 18, with care based on the child's age, size, condition and needs. With babies we may use very gentle, low-force techniques such as an Activator.
- Wellness care after the first problem has settled, aimed at joint mobility, muscle and joint stiffness and recurring muscle tension.
Guides by where it hurts
These guides explain each condition and when a medical doctor comes first.
| Where it hurts | Guide |
|---|---|
| Recurring headaches that start in a tight or sore neck | Headaches and migraines |
| Dizziness that comes with a sore or stiff neck | Vertigo and dizziness |
| Neck pain after a car accident | Whiplash |
| Groin, outer-hip or buttock pain | Hip pain |
| Pain on the outside of the elbow when you grip | Elbow tendinopathy |
| Numb, tingling fingers, often at night | Carpal tunnel syndrome |
| Pain, tingling or weakness in an arm or a leg | Arm and leg pain |
| A rolled ankle | Ankle sprains |
| A sideways curve in the spine, in a child or an adult | Scoliosis |
| Strain from repeating the same task at work | Work injury |
Can a chiropractor help with knee pain?
Knee pain is one of the joint problems we see. Care for it here can include hands-on treatment, rehab exercises and Class IV laser therapy, and our knee pain page goes through the exam, the care and what the research shows.
Can a chiropractor help with hip pain?
Pain you feel in the hip can come from the hip joint, from the tendons and other soft tissues around it, or from the low back. The low back is something we examine and treat, and the first-visit exam is how we look for which source it is. If the exam points to the hip joint itself, we'll go over what we found and, if it isn't something we treat, tell you who to see. The hip pain guide explains how they differ, and pain that runs from the back into the hip or down the leg is covered under back pain and sciatica.
When should you see a chiropractor?
People come to us when back, neck or joint pain or stiffness keeps coming back, or gets in the way of sleep, work, driving or exercise. A first visit is a history and an exam. If one of the warning signs further down this page fits, a medical doctor or the ER comes first.
What happens at a first chiropractic visit?
Your first visit starts with a detailed history. You'll sit down with Dr. Jeff, Dr. Cindy or Dr. Ali and go over your health history, your symptoms, your concerns and your goals.
Then comes a full evaluation, with full-spine X-rays when they're clinically appropriate. The exam looks for joints that aren't moving well, muscle tension, inflammation, swelling in or around a joint, and signs of an irritated or pinched nerve. From there we work out what may be contributing to your symptoms and what kind of care may fit.
After the exam, we'll go over what we found before we recommend anything. The plan can include short-term care and longer-term options, depending on your condition and your goals, and every plan here is customized, because every patient's condition, health history and needs are different. What a first visit here involves has more, and you can fill in the new patient paperwork at home before you come. Ready to start? Book online.
Five questions to think through before a chiropractor visit
Your answers shape the history we take at a first visit:
- What changed, and when did it start?
- Which everyday things has it made harder?
- Was there an accident, an injury or a change in your training before it began?
- What have you already tried, and how did it go?
- What would real progress look like to you?
Bring your medication list and any related reports.
What treatments does a chiropractor use?
Treatment follows the exam. Here's what the plan can draw on at our office:
- Chiropractic adjustments. An adjustment is a controlled force applied to a specific joint, usually by hand, aimed at a joint that isn't moving well. Many people hear a pop, which comes from gas in the joint fluid, not from bone moving against bone.
- Spinal decompression, on the DOC Decompression Table, for disc problems in the low back and neck. You lie on a table while a controlled, gentle pulling force is applied to your spine.
- Dry needling: a thin, solid needle placed into a tight band of muscle, with nothing injected, for the muscle and soft-tissue problems the exam finds.
- Class IV laser therapy with the Summus Horizon, alongside our other care, for temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain, stiffness and muscle spasm.
- StemWave, a focused acoustic wave therapy we use alongside our other care for heel pain.
- Rehab exercises for weakness, stability and how you move, so the work carries on between visits.
- Nutritional counseling as supportive care, when it fits your overall plan.
- Posture scanning: about a minute standing in front of a depth camera gives us a record of how you stand. We use it as a measurement, never as a diagnosis.
A licensed massage therapist also works out of our office, and we'll put you in touch when soft-tissue work fits.
What does the research say about chiropractic care?
Spinal manipulation is the technique behind a chiropractic adjustment. Here is what some of the research on the back, the neck and headaches that start in the neck found:
- Low back pain. A 2017 JAMA review pooled 15 randomized trials (1,699 patients) for pain and 12 for function, and found spinal manipulation was associated with modest improvements in pain and function at up to six weeks, compared with sham or other treatments, in recent low back pain, on moderate-quality evidence, though results varied a lot between trials. The American College of Physicians notes that most recent back pain improves over time whatever the treatment, and lists spinal manipulation among the non-drug treatments it recommends for both recent and chronic low back pain. It rates the evidence for manipulation low in quality for both.
- Neck pain. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, sums up the research this way: spinal manipulation can be helpful for acute neck pain, and manipulation or mobilization can be helpful for chronic neck pain. It adds that the acute neck pain evidence is small and should be read with caution, and that the chronic neck pain evidence is low to moderate in quality.
- Headaches that start in the neck. In a trial of 256 adults with chronic cervicogenic headache, 18 sessions of chiropractic spinal manipulation over six weeks cut headache days by about half, about three fewer headache days a month than with a light-massage comparison. Fewer sessions made smaller differences that weren't statistically significant, and how intense the headaches were didn't change in an important way.
These findings describe groups of people, not a prediction of your own result. Each condition page above goes through the research for that problem, including the studies of decompression, dry needling and laser.
Is chiropractic care safe, and what are the alternatives?
Short-lived side effects are common. According to the NCCIH, increased pain or discomfort, stiffness or headache often follow spinal manipulation or mobilization, and most go away within 24 hours. Serious side effects, such as serious spinal or neurological problems or strokes involving arteries in the neck, have been reported. They're very rare, and there are no accurate estimates of how often they happen. The NCCIH adds that the chance of a serious side effect may be greater in people with underlying health problems that raise their risk of injury, which is one reason your history comes before any treatment.
There are other options, and some combine well with chiropractic care. For low back pain, NICE, which writes the clinical guidelines for England's NHS, says to consider manual therapy, including spinal manipulation, only as part of a treatment package that includes exercise, and to tailor advice and exercise to the person. For recent low back pain, the ACP guideline above also recommends heat, massage or acupuncture, and anti-inflammatory drugs or muscle relaxants for people who want medicine. For chronic low back pain, it puts exercise, rehabilitation programs, acupuncture and mindfulness-based stress reduction among the first choices. What they offer: a Cochrane review found that exercise therapy probably improves chronic low back pain compared with no treatment, usual care or placebo, and the ACP rated the evidence behind heat for recent back pain, and behind anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants, as moderate in quality. We go over the benefits, risks and alternatives to chiropractic care in more detail, and at your exam we'll talk through the options that fit you. If a plan isn't helping, we want to hear it.
What doesn't a chiropractor treat?
Our care is for the muscles, joints and nerves. We don't present chiropractic adjustments as a treatment for digestive, immune, heart or lung conditions, and we don't diagnose or treat kidney stones or urinary tract infections, even though both can cause pain that's felt in the back or flank. Part of examining anyone with back pain is working out whether it looks like a muscle and joint problem, and when it doesn't, we'll refer you for the right medical evaluation.
Constipation that keeps going is one for your medical doctor. The NIH's digestive disease institute says to see a doctor right away for constipation with bleeding from the rectum, blood in the stool, constant pain in the abdomen, being unable to pass gas, vomiting, fever, lower back pain or losing weight without trying.
For pregnancy itself, your OB or midwife comes first, and we look at the back and pelvic pain you carry along the way. For a baby, the pediatrician comes first, and we see babies the pediatrician has already checked.
Ringing in the ears is one for your medical doctor too: tinnitus can have several contributing factors, hearing problems among them. Your primary care doctor may refer you to an ear, nose and throat specialist or an audiologist, and hearing aids, sound therapy and behavioral approaches are among the ways the symptoms are managed. We don't present adjustments as a treatment for hearing loss.
Sudden hearing loss is a medical emergency. Hearing that goes suddenly or over a few days needs immediate medical assessment, even if it comes with ringing or just feels like a blocked ear. Please don't wait for a routine appointment with us or anyone else: delaying assessment and treatment can reduce how well treatment works.
When should you see a medical doctor or go to the ER first?
Most muscle and joint pain isn't urgent. These are the main exceptions.
Call 911 or go to an emergency room now, not an appointment with us, if back or leg pain comes with any of these:
- Loss of bladder or bowel control, or new difficulty passing urine
- A change in the sensation of passing urine, such as not feeling the flow, or losing the sense of when the bowel is full
- Numbness in the saddle area: the inner thighs, buttocks, or around the genitals
- New sexual dysfunction, including new numbness in the genitals
- New or worsening weakness in both legs
- Severe back pain with fever, or an unexplained fever with new back pain. Either alone is enough
Get urgent medical care for leg pain with any of these:
- A calf or leg that is swollen, warm, red or tender, especially in one leg only
- Sudden shortness of breath or chest pain, which can mean a clot has moved to the lungs. Call 911
Seek emergency care now for a headache or neck pain with any of these:
- A headache of sudden, severe onset, reaching maximum intensity within about five minutes
- Headache with fever, or with a stiff neck, or with a rash. Any one of these is enough, and they often do not appear together
- Headache with new neurological symptoms: weakness, numbness, difficulty speaking, confusion, loss of coordination, or visual loss
- Headache after a head injury, particularly with drowsiness or repeated vomiting
- A painful red eye with blurred vision or halos seen around lights
- In anyone over fifty, a new headache with scalp tenderness, pain in the jaw when chewing, or any change in vision. Visual loss from this cause can be permanent, and it is treatable if caught early.
- Severe neck pain, or a new and unexplained headache, or both, especially alongside visual disturbance, unsteadiness or slurred speech. Either symptom alone can be the first sign. That combination can indicate a tear in an artery in the neck, and it needs immediate medical investigation rather than manual treatment. It does not always announce itself at once: in reported cases the neurological signs followed the first headache or neck pain by a median of several hours to several days, so a day or two of "just" severe neck pain and headache does not rule it out.
Call 911 for pain or discomfort in a shoulder, an arm, the neck, the jaw or the back that comes with any of these:
- Chest discomfort, such as pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea, lightheadedness or a cold sweat
MedlinePlus lists discomfort in one or both arms, the back, shoulders, neck or jaw among the most common symptoms of a heart attack, alongside chest discomfort and shortness of breath, and says to call 911 even if you're not sure it's a heart attack.
Call 911 for sudden numbness or weakness of the face, an arm or a leg, especially on one side of the body, a face drooping on one side, or slurred or strange speech. MedlinePlus lists these as signs of a stroke, and every minute counts.
None of these is a reason to panic. Each one is a reason to see the right person first, and if you mention one to us, that's exactly what we'll tell you.
Book a chiropractor visit in Clarksville
If your back, neck or a joint has been stiff, sore or painful and none of the warning signs above fit, a first visit at our Clarksville office is where we start working out what's behind it. If we are not able to help you with your problem or are unable to reduce your pain levels, we will make sure to give you a recommendation to another experienced provider. Book online or contact us.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
26 randomized trials of adults with low back pain of six weeks or less, treated with spinal manipulation in outpatient settings, plus observational studies for harms.
What it foundSpinal manipulation was associated with modest improvements in pain and function at up to six weeks (moderate-quality evidence). Minor, temporary effects such as increased pain, muscle stiffness and headache were reported in more than half of patients in large case series, and no trial reported a serious adverse event.
What it can't tell usResults varied a lot between trials, and the review covers only the first six weeks.
Publication details & citation
Paige et al. Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA. 2017. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.3086.
Read the publication recordNoninvasive Treatments for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians
Adults with acute, subacute or chronic low-back pain considering noninvasive management.
What it foundThe guideline prioritizes non-drug options for chronic low-back pain, including exercise. Spinal manipulation is one of several options, supported by lower-quality evidence.
What it can't tell usA guideline pulls together existing evidence; it doesn't report a new experiment. It doesn't establish disc realignment, a cure for everyone, or superiority over all other care.
Publication details & citation
Qaseem et al. Noninvasive Treatments for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2017. DOI: 10.7326/M16-2367.
Read the publication recordDose-response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for care of cervicogenic headache: a dual-center randomized controlled trial
256 adults with chronic cervicogenic headache, assigned 0, 6, 12 or 18 sessions of chiropractic spinal manipulation over six weeks, with light massage at the other visits.
What it foundHeadache days fell as the number of manipulation visits rose. With 18 visits, headache days were reduced by about half, about 3 more days a month than the light-massage control. Headache intensity showed no important improvement.
What it can't tell usThe trial was open-label, so participants knew their group. Mild, short-lived side effects were reported by about 40% of those given manipulation and about 20% of the control group.
Publication details & citation
Haas et al. Dose-response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for care of cervicogenic headache: a dual-center randomized controlled trial. The Spine Journal. 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.spinee.2018.02.019.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.