What Does a Chiropractor Actually Do? A Sioux Falls Chiropractor Explains
- Dr. Lucas Marchand
- Jun 16
- 6 min read
By Dr. Lucas Marchand, DC — MyChiro Mobile Chiropractic, Sioux Falls, SD
Most people who've never seen a chiropractor have a vague mental image of someone getting their back cracked. The sound is dramatic. The result seems immediate. The mechanism is mysterious.
That image gets chiropractic about twenty percent right.
After nearly a decade of practicing mobile chiropractic in Sioux Falls, I've had this conversation hundreds of times — usually in someone's driveway, right before their first visit, when they're simultaneously curious and slightly apprehensive. What I tell them is the same thing I'll tell you here: chiropractic is less dramatic than the videos make it look and more effective than the skeptics suggest, for a specific and explainable reason.
The Problem Chiropractic Actually Solves
The spine is a mechanical structure. It's designed to move — to flex, extend, rotate, and absorb load throughout the day. When it stops moving correctly, the surrounding musculature compensates. Muscles tighten to protect restricted joints. That tightness creates compression. The compression creates pain.
This is the cycle that drives the vast majority of back and neck pain. Not a herniated disc. Not a fracture. Not structural damage of any kind — just a mechanical system that has stopped moving the way it's designed to move.
Chiropractic care addresses this at the source. The adjustment — a controlled, directed force applied to a specific spinal segment — restores motion to a joint that has been restricted. When the joint moves again, the protective muscle guarding releases. The compression reduces. The pain signal diminishes.
This is why the effect of a chiropractic adjustment often feels immediate. It's not because anything was "put back into place" — that's a myth. It's because the mechanical input to a restricted joint triggers a neurological response that reduces the surrounding muscle tension within seconds.
What Chiropractors Are Trained to Do
A Doctor of Chiropractic completes a four-year graduate program covering anatomy, physiology, neurology, orthopedics, radiology, and clinical diagnosis — on top of an undergraduate degree. Licensing requires passing four national board examinations and meeting state-specific requirements.
The scope of practice varies by state, but in South Dakota chiropractors are licensed to diagnose and treat conditions of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. That includes the spine, extremities, and associated soft tissue structures.
What chiropractors don't do is prescribe medication or perform surgery. This isn't a limitation so much as a philosophy — the premise of chiropractic is that the body, given proper mechanical function, tends toward health without pharmaceutical intervention. Whether you accept that premise fully or partially, the clinical outcomes for appropriate chiropractic cases — low back pain, neck pain, headaches, certain extremity conditions — are well-documented in the research literature.
What the Adjustment Actually Is
The spinal adjustment — also called spinal manipulation — is the defining procedure of chiropractic care. It involves a quick, controlled thrust applied to a specific vertebral segment to restore its range of motion.
The thrust is fast and precise. The force required is much less than most patients anticipate because it's directed at a specific joint rather than applied generally to the back. The "pop" that sometimes accompanies an adjustment is cavitation — the release of dissolved gases from the joint fluid as pressure changes rapidly. It's acoustically dramatic and clinically incidental. The adjustment works whether or not it produces sound.
Different adjusting techniques vary in the amount of force used. The Diversified technique — the most common — involves a manually delivered thrust. The Activator method uses a small spring-loaded instrument to deliver a lower-force impulse. The Thompson technique uses a segmented drop table to assist the adjustment with minimal manual force. At MyChiro, the technique used depends on the patient's presentation, age, pain level, and tissue sensitivity. There is no single right method — there's only the method that fits the patient in front of you.
What Happens at a First Visit
A first chiropractic visit has a consistent structure regardless of the setting.
The history comes first. Where is the pain? When did it start? What makes it better or worse? Has this happened before? Are there any red flags — radiating symptoms, bowel or bladder changes, unexplained weight loss — that would suggest a referral rather than chiropractic care? The history shapes everything that follows.
The examination follows. Range of motion, orthopedic tests, neurological screening, palpation of the spine and surrounding structures. The goal is to identify the specific restricted segments and rule out contraindications to manipulation.
Treatment follows if appropriate. In most straightforward cases, the first visit includes both assessment and treatment. At MyChiro, where the clinic comes to you in a fully equipped van, the visit takes place in a private, controlled environment with the same equipment used in a traditional office setting. The whole appointment typically runs fifteen to twenty minutes.
At the end of the first visit, you'll have a clear picture of what's going on and what the plan is. Not a vague "come back three times a week for a month" — a specific explanation of what was found, what was treated, and what to expect.
What Chiropractic Treats — and What It Doesn't
The conditions most supported by chiropractic evidence include:
Low back pain — both acute and chronic. This is the most studied area in chiropractic research and the one with the strongest outcome data. For mechanical low back pain specifically, spinal manipulation compares favorably to most conventional treatments in both short and long-term outcomes.
Neck pain — particularly the mechanical, posture-driven variety that has become significantly more prevalent with remote work. The cervical spine responds well to manipulation and the associated soft tissue work that precedes it.
Tension headaches — many of which originate from restricted cervical joints and overloaded suboccipital musculature rather than from intracranial pathology.
Certain extremity conditions — shoulder impingement, hip mobility restriction, ankle instability with a spinal component — respond to chiropractic care, though the evidence base is thinner than for spinal conditions.
What chiropractic doesn't treat effectively: fractures, infections, inflammatory arthritis in active flare, cancer affecting the spine, and neurological emergencies. These require medical management and a competent chiropractor will recognize them and refer appropriately. Part of what a first visit assessment does is screen for exactly these presentations.
The Mobile Chiropractic Difference
The question I get most often from people who've never used MyChiro is: does the care change because it comes to you?
The clinical answer is no. The adjustment is the same. The assessment is the same. The equipment is the same. The outcome data is the same. What changes is the logistics — and for many patients in Sioux Falls, the logistics were the barrier that prevented them from seeking care in the first place.
Getting to a clinic when your back hurts is genuinely difficult. Driving aggravates certain presentations. Sitting in a waiting room is uncomfortable. Scheduling around work and family and the unpredictability of acute pain is a real obstacle. The van removes all of it. You book online, I come to your location, the visit happens in the van parked outside, and you walk back inside twenty minutes later.
For the patient who has been managing pain with ibuprofen because getting to a clinic felt like too much — that friction removal is clinically meaningful. Early intervention produces better outcomes than delayed care. Removing the barrier to early intervention is, in a real sense, part of the treatment.
A Note on What to Expect
Most patients with acute mechanical pain notice improvement within two to four visits. Chronic presentations — pain that has been present for months or years — typically take longer and may require more visits before meaningful change is sustained.
Soreness after the first visit is common, especially in areas that have been restricted for a long time. It usually resolves within twenty-four to forty-eight hours and is not a sign that the treatment made things worse. It's the tissue responding to new movement patterns after a period of restriction.
The goal is not to create a patient who comes indefinitely. The goal is to restore function, reduce pain, and give you the tools — exercises, postural adjustments, movement habits — to maintain what was gained. Some patients choose periodic maintenance care after their presenting complaint resolves. That's a personal decision, not a clinical requirement.
Getting Started in Sioux Falls
If you've been dealing with back pain, neck pain, headaches, or any musculoskeletal complaint and you're not sure whether chiropractic is the right fit — the most useful thing you can do is have one conversation or book one visit.
MyChiro serves Sioux Falls, Brandon, Tea, Harrisburg, Renner, and the surrounding area. The clinic comes to you. Same-day appointments are usually available. New patients are welcome.
Book your first visit here. Or call or text me directly at (605) 201-4862.
