The biggest chiropractic myth is the idea about chiropractic not being safe. A lot of people are afraid to go to a chiropractor and they think that it’s unsafe. It really couldn’t be farther from the truth because chiropractic is safe and effective for both adults and children.
I always say it is actually safer to adjust children and infants than adults because in most cases they haven’t been exposed to stress, tension, poor posture, accidents, falls and things like that. In most cases, a child’s spine or an infant’s spine is much more flexible and pliable. The ligaments are looser, and they have less comorbidities. They don’t have high blood pressure, they haven’t been in car accidents, they don’t have a lot of these lifestyle diseases that a lot of older adults have that actually complicate things.
Chiropractic is very safe. As a matter of fact, I would put the chiropractic safety record against any other profession. When you look at the safety of a profession, the best way to determine how safe it is, is to look at how high or low the malpractice rates are for that particular profession. I’m proud to say that chiropractors’ malpractice insurance, particularly mine, is only $2,300 a year. It costs more to insure my car in New York City than it does to insure my practice. And to give you a little bit of perspective, average malpractice for a regular primary care physician ranges anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000. Some surgeons in some states pay as high as $50,000 and some obstetrics and gynecologists can pay in excess of $200,000 a year. Anesthesiologists are also up that high. So, it’s interesting when you really think about it, how high the rates are for a lot of these medical doctors because what they do is far riskier than what a chiropractor does.
Now, are there people who get injured in chiropractic offices? It’s extremely rare. And that’s the exact wording. When I scoured the internet looking for some statistics, it said injury and death from chiropractic is extremely rare. Incidences are much less than one in a million. So, it’s really interesting to try to figure out why people are pointing the fingers. And I think a lot of that comes from the medical profession casting dispersions on chiropractors because we’re in direct competition with them. We also tout using no drugs and no surgery, which are the primary medical treatments. So, we’ve always been a little bit on the other side of the coin from medicine. They’ll say things like, “Oh, it’s not safe.” But I don’t find that to be true. If it wasn’t safe, why would my malpractice be so much lower than a medical doctor?
It is extremely safe and effective to get adjusted by a chiropractor. There are so few incidents that it’s rarely reported. We never have to do any disclosures to say, “Oh, if you have this treatment, you might have this, this, and this, and this”. We’re not required to do that in anything because what we do is safe, and few people get injured under our care. Again, I just always point to that malpractice rate to show how safe chiropractic truly is.
It’s an honor to deliver care to people in New York City and we do it safely. We’ve got a perfect track record. And if anyone wants to talk more about these things or they have concerns, just reach out to the office. I’m happy to have these conversations.
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