A Word of Caution to Parents Concerning Chiropractic Care and X-rays

  

   Chiropractic care can be very helpful for children, and I see many children of all ages for chiropractic care in my office.  On a recent occasion, a patient brought her child in to my office for chiropractic care, and brought along x-rays that were taken of her child by her chiropractor.  The child was being seen to see if the child's ADHD could be helped with chiropractic care.  There are studies that have shown that chiropractic care can help children with ADHD.  I was rather surprised to see that x-rays had been taken, as there was no report of accidents, falls, or injuries.  The child was not being managed for scoliosis, which is a curvature in the spine.  There were no other unusual symptoms in this case. The chiropractor took front and side view x-rays, and it showed the child's skull to the knee on the x-rays.  I am not really that clear at this point why a full spine x-ray + extremity view was taken of this child, which leads me to my warning to parents.  There needs to be a clear reason why full spine x-rays would be taken of a child, period.  I am not in favor of exposing a young child to unnecessary radiation like this, simply to check the alignment of the spine.  As a parent, if you are going to take you child to a chiropractor and the chiropractor wants to take x-rays you need to have a clear reason of why x-rays are being taken.  The main reason for taking x-rays are to evaluate the area of the spine or extremity as a result of an injury, accident, scoliosis, to rule out cancer, or spinal instability.  If the child has injured his or her knee then it may be recommended that an x-ray of the knee be taken.  If a child has injured his or her low back, then it is reasonable that an x-ray of the low back (NOT FULL SPINE) be taken.  In the case of the child that I was referring to, I can find no clear indications of why a full spine and extremity x-rays were taken, and I find this approach irresponsible.  If a chiropractor wants to image your child's full spine to check alignment, then I would recommend that you walk out the door and find another chiropractor.  I realize that this may be unpopular with "technique based chiropractors", but sorry, this is irresponsible, unacceptable, and is exposing the child to unnecessary radiation.