Decompression In San Antonio

Before we get into the benefits of our San Antonio office's spinal decompression program, if you have concerns about mixed messages you might have read or heard about spinal decompression, we'd like to "clear the air" about some...

Misconceptions, Misleading Statements, And Outright Fraud Regarding Spinal Decompression

Unfortuately, the ugly tactics that have been used in the decompression market in the race for the almighty dollar has resulted in a cloud of confusion and suspicion in the minds of many patients and doctors alike regarding this form of treatment. We hope to be able to resolve at least some of that confusion and suspicion with the information that follows.

What Is Spinal Decompression?

Simply put, spinal decompression is an advanced form of traction that uses computer-controlled traction motors to "trick" the muscles around the spine into staying relaxed during the treatment, rather than fighting it (as typically occurs with regular traction). It is this ability to keep the muscles relaxed that allows spinal decompression to get far better results than were ever achieved with regular traction.

The primary effect of spinal decompression is to reduce pressure in the spinal discs sufficiently to "suck in" bulges and to draw in fluid and nutrients to assist in disc healing and regeneration. The following video illustrates what occurs during spinal decompression treatment:

While regular traction does reduce pressure in the spinal discs somewhat, it is usually insufficient to actually pull bulges back in. Experiments done with regular traction machines found that disc pressure could be reduced from about 90 mmHG (normal disc pressure) to about 30 mmHG. This is useful to an extent in some cases, but simply not enough to correct disc bulging in most situations.

By contrast, experiments using the Vax-D spinal decompression machine found that disc pressure could be reduced from 90mmHG down to -150 mmHG (that's MINUS 150 mmHG!) and below. This is a strong suction that is usually more than sufficient to pull bulging disc material back towards the center of the disc and away from sensitive nerves. Again, this major difference in the effect on disc pressure betweein spinal decompression and regular traction is due to the ability of spinal decompression systems to maintain relaxation in the paraspinal muscles.

With repeated treatment, the disc gradually heals and stabilizes so that the retraction of any disc bulging is maintained and the tissues of the disc are rehydrated. By improving the health and thickness of the discs, it may also reduce the pressure on, and the inflammation of spinal joints (the inflammation of these joints is sometimes called facet syndrome) and subsequently slow or stop the progression of spinal joint arthritis.

How Effective Is Spinal Decompression?

While the formal research studies on spinal decompression place the effectiveness at between 85% and 90%, in the real world, it appears to be slightly less. Research scientists have the luxury of excluding the "less than ideal" patients and can also dismiss people from a study when they don't follow the treatment protocol 100%. With real patients who may have complicating factors like diabetes, high stress, heavy smoking, etc., and who sometimes miss appointments, don't follow home-treatment advice, etc., the overall success rate is closer to 75% to 80%. In our San Antonio spinal decompression clinic, we provide other services in addition to spinal decompression, so it's difficult to isolate the success rate for that treatment alone, but our overall success rate including even our non-compliant patients is about 80%. It should be pointed out that we define success as the patient being able to comfortably return to normal activities whereas the statistical success rate for many treatments (such as injections and surgery) is based on any noticeable improvement in symptoms.

Can Anybody Have Spinal Decompression Treatment?

No. As with any type of health care procedure, there are certain restrictions and contraindications for spinal decompression. There are very few absolute contraindications because it is a relatively safe and gentle treatment, but as a precaution, we do not perform spinal decompression in our San Antonio office on patients who:

Have active spinal cancer
Are pregnant
Have major spinal instability
Have metal surgical implants from past spine surgery in the area of the spine causing symptoms
Have severe osteoporosis

Aside from those absolute contraindications, there are various other health conditions and extenuating circumstances that would cause us to refuse a patient for spinal decompression. These situations are handled on a case by case basis by the treating doctor.

Finally, it needs to be recognized that although it is considerably less disruptive to one's daily life than surgical treatment, spinal decompression does require a certain amount of commitment on the part of the patient for a successful outcome. An unwillingness or inability to follow our treatment recommendations will inevitably lead us to excluding an individual from our treatment program. We are dedicated to providing the best results possible, and if you can't or won't help us to help you, we must decline your case in favor of other patients whom we can better serve in a cooperative fashion. This is nothing personal, but simply a necessity if we are to put our talents and efforts to their best use.

How Much Does It Cost and Does Insurance Cover It?

While this is by far one of the most common questions we receive, this is not the best time or place to answer this question because there are too many variables on cost and insurance coverage for a specific individual.

The first question that must be answered is whether a given patient is a candidate for spinal decompression treatment. If so, the next question that must be considered is how much treatment that person will need for optimal results for the type and severity of their problem, and what other treatment do they need in addition to spinal decompression in our San Antonio office. These considerations can produce wide variations in total cost.

With regards to insurance coverage, again there are many individual variables to consider. For instance, even though a given insurance company typically will provide coverage for our services, a given individual may have an exclusion on coverage for any treatment on the related diagnosis, or they may have a particularly high deductible to be met, or some other policy issue that would effect the amount their insurance will pay. In our experience, most insurance companies will not divulge any coverage information without a formal diagnosis for the individual patient, so our evaluation and diagnosis (which we offer free of charge) is a necessary first step before we can determine insurance benefits.

Because of these individual variations, cost and insurance issues simply have to be handled on a case by case basis once we have done our evaluation and diagnostic procedures. It is for this reason that we offer our initial evaluation and diagnosis free of charge, because we don't want our patients to incur significant out of pocket costs before we even know if we can accept them into our treatment program.

Most people are primarily interested in getting better and just want to know if they can afford to get the treatment they need in order to do that, and we make sure to find out before they incur any out of pocket costs in our office.

To find out if you are a candidate for our spinal decompression program, schedule a FREE consultation and evaluation with one of our doctors.

Call us today at (210) 408-7888!

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