Physio’s, Bio’s and Chiro’s – who do I need, when and why?
There is quite a lot of debate and confusion about the difference between a physiotherapist, biokineticist and chiropractor so I thought I’d offer my opinion to hopefully make it simpler for people who aren’t in the medical profession.
Firstly, I have to mention that I believe there is space for all three in the professional world. The work each person does is so important! The problem comes in when bios/ physio’s or chiro’s start doing the work of someone that they’re not qualified to do so. Unfortunately there are some confused and greedy people out there who are lawsuits waiting to happen! My advice – let’s all refer to each other and be one happy professional family with happy patients!
Ok, let’s start with Physio’s…
Physiotherapists are very hands on and they help diagnose and manage the first stages of injury (when you first twist your ankle or pull a muscle for example). They work with a large variety of people, in many different scopes. For example, if you have just injured your ankle, a Physio will assess you and try to reduce the pain and swelling. They’re also great at educating you about the injury and the treatment so you know why you’re doing what you’re doing in the rehab sessions. They’ll help you improve your range of motion and muscle function with stretching, strengthening, propioception exercises. Once the pain is gone and basic function is restored, they will then refer you to a Biokineticist to help you with the final phases of rehabilitation.
A Biokineticist prescribes specific exercises to help you get back to 100% as far as your strength, flexibility, endurance, explosive power, speed and proprioception/ balance (depending on your need). We use exercises backed up by science to help improve your condition, whether it be after an injury like torn ligaments (after you’ve seen the Physio) or managing with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, stroke, Parkinson’s etc etc.
Chiropractors… They are the people that twist, push and pull your body in all different directions, basically make it sound like it’s made of rice crispies! I want to encourage you not to be scared of them, they are well qualified to help you! They’re focused on improving your joint health, more specifically, the mobility and alignment, and they do this with the use manual manipulation techniques. They can also do adjustments of your spine and other joints and use dry needling techniques to relieve tension in muscles.
Some people skip the Physio or Bio or Chiro and head straight back into their sport after simply resting after an injury. To each their own I say, I can’t force you to see anyone but I would strongly advise it. Without their input, you’re left at a high risk of re-injury or you may struggle with chronic pain and problems later on in life (I can’t tell you the amount of older patients I have saying they hurt themselves when they were younger but they didn’t think it was too bad so they just carried on but now they’re struggling!).
To sum it up, all three professions have the same goal of getting you back to your fully functioning self, they just use slightly different approaches and are used at different stages. Again, this is purely my opinion after I did some research and interviews with a few colleagues (thanks so much guys!). Other opinions are welcome!
At the end of the day, the choice is yours!
