Rehab Therapy

Rehabilitation therapy is a healing process, which is in a medical environment that helps a patient regain strength and restore their physical, mental and/or cognitive abilities, so that they can return to a quality of life they want.

The main purpose of rehabilitation is to work with the patient who are suffering from pain, restricted movement or injury so that they can get back, keep, or improve their daily life.

Some of the benefits of rehabilitation therapy are: lessens pain and discomfort so you can be more active and enjoy life, helps restore you to your pre-injury status, strengthens your muscles, improves coordination, balance and flexibility, reduce swelling in your affected joints/muscles, corrects your posture and gait, and alleviate chronic pain.

Both are highly trained healthcare professionals. Both a chiropractor and physical therapist must be trained at a doctoral level and pass licensing examinations before they can legally practice. They also have the same focus on nonsurgical and drug-free treatment. Chiropractors look at the entire musculoskeletal and nervous systems and can evaluate, diagnose and treat disorders and injuries. They do not just treat the spine. They can treat joints, tendons, muscles and nerves. They can treat whiplash, carpal tunnel syndrome, preventive care for pregnant women, sports injuries, and headaches.

Physical therapists treat conditions or injuries of the whole body as related to the body's strength, mobility and function. They focus on restoring the patient to maximum function through physical therapy services. As an example, if a patient needs to relearn how to walk after a stroke, use a prosthetic limb or get strength back after surgery.

To better understand the differences you need to look at the treatment methods they offer. A chiropractor can conduct tests, take x-rays and do physical exams; assess posture and spinal alignment; use heat and cold therapy for pain and promote healing; conduct therapeutic ultrasound to improve soft tissue injuries; do soft tissue mobilization or massage; use spinal traction, give electrical nerve stimulation; and recommend improvements on lifestyle and nutrition. Spinal adjustments are performed to help improve spinal alignment and relieve stress. In most cases a physician referral is not required by the insurance provider.
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Physical therapists review a patient's medical history and symptoms. They do patient assessments, like observing how a patient moves or how specific body parts function. Based on what they discover they will develop a comprehensive physical therapy program. Some of the methods they use are passive and active stretches and exercises; therapeutic ultrasound; joint mobilization techniques; dry needling; hot and cold therapy; massage therapy; train for using of assistance devices, orthotics and prosthetics; kinesiology taping; and light therapy.