Services & Techniques

You’ve probably seen a few chiropractors on YouTube or TikTok with carefully placed microphones to show off a loud crack!  While I agree that technically, yes, that is an adjustment, the vast majority are not done in such a way to illicit such loud cracking sounds.  Believe it or not, that is not our goal.  The sound you hear is simply a side effect – but it isn’t necessary to know that it was a good adjustment.  Some chiropractors use adjusting instruments (activators) that seldom cause these popping sounds or some use special tables and will do table drops.  I think at the end of the day, all chiropractors are attempting to get a bone to move ever so slightly with their adjustments.  Sometimes it will cause a noise; sometimes it won’t. 

The joints in your knuckles are called synovial joints.  A lot of other joints, including the facets in your spine, are designed very similarly.  However, there are two discs per spinal segment unlike the joints in your hands.  While we attempt to make sure all joints move properly, joints like the discs simply do not pop.  It is the facets on the back side of the spine that will release a gas (like the knuckles) that cause a popping sound. 

A common joke amongst chiropractors is ‘cracking is for eggs, not spines.’  And yet, it is by far the most common way I hear patients ask about the popping sound.  The TV show the Simpson’s have a pretty comical skit about this exact topic when Homer decides to become a chiropractor.  Also, amongst insurance companies and other health care providers, oftentimes you will hear “spinal manipulation.”  While we must use this term daily for insurance purposes, you seldom hear chiropractors use this word for their trade.

So what is an adjustment?  A gentle technique used by chiropractors to improve spinal biomechanics and improve communication in the nervous system!