Becoming a doctor of chiropractic requires an incredible commitment. Just to enter the profession demands six years of your life and well over $100,000 in education. After graduation you must pass at least three national board exams, followed by those required for state licensure.
But your commitment only begins with your education. Each day of your professional career is filled with patients who need your care, staff needing your direction, and seemingly endless paperwork. Regardless of your motivations, chiropractic practice is a commitment to your patients and your profession.
The chiropractic profession includes many different communities: doctors, students, college faculty and administrators, association staff and patients. Undergirding all of these communities are chiropractic suppliers. The chiropractic suppliers are the companies that make this profession possible. True, you may feel that all you need are your hands and a kitchen chair, but without our chiropractic suppliers, this profession wouldn't have progressed to where we are today.
Look around your office at all the equipment and supplies you use in an average day: the adjustment table; sanitary paper; x-ray equipment and film; forms, office procedures, and software, all developed with your success in mind. Many dedicated individuals, most of them chiropractors or from chiropractic families, have spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars providing you and your patients with many essential products and services.
Some DCs have the attitude that because suppliers make their money selling to chiropractors that the suppliers owe the profession something. While that's true, it's only one side of the relationship. Chiropractors and chiropractic suppliers have a mutually beneficial partnership. Suppliers make their money designing products and services for chiropractors; DCs make their money using those products and services for their patients. We rely on each other.
But be aware that our chiropractic suppliers underwrite most chiropractic conventions, pay for the publishing of almost all chiropractic publications, and help ensure that as this profession progresses the needed economic infrastructure is developed. These contributions often go unnoticed or unappreciated.
As times have gotten tougher for many DCs, they have likewise gotten tougher for some chiropractic suppliers. Several long-established companies have recently fallen on hard times, and some have fallen into bankruptcy.
Chiropractic suppliers who develop the best products and services are rewarded with your patronage. But even those you don't buy from still support the chiropractic profession in many ways you may not think of.
The season of conventions is upon us. As you see chiropractic suppliers in exhibit booths or talk to them on the phone, please let them know that you appreciate the support they give our profession.
Chiropractic suppliers are your practice partners. They have invested their future in your future.
Donald M. Petersen Jr.,BS,HCD(hc),FICC(h)
Editor/Publisher of Dynamic Chiropractic
Don-MPAmedia.com
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
