What is the Pettibon Technique?

The Pettibon Spinal Biomechanics

The nervous system coordinates and controls all systems of the body and relates the individual to their environment (Gray’s Anatomy). The nervous system controls and directs every function of the body through the spinal nerves that exit the spinal column. Pressure on spinal nerves and the spinal cord from misaligned vertebra creates pain and a lack of health in the body. For over one hundred years Chiropractors have been adjusting or manipulating the spine to reduce nervous pressure and pain.

The Pettibon Procedures are an advanced, scientific approach to Chiropractic that is taught as an elective or at postgraduate level. They exceed the standard chiropractic college curriculum. These procedures include progressive treatment plans. The first plan is based on ligament physiology. Its goal is to get the patient out of pain by causing the uncompensated spine to re-organize into a compensated position. The second plan is based upon muscle physiology. Its goal is to rehabilitate and correct the units of the global spine so it aligns to its gravitational field. The third plan occurs after spinal correction and rehabilitation. Most knowledgeable patients want to have periodic checkups. They also continue in an active exercise program to arrest and reverse the subluxations effects of their jobs, recreational activities and their life styles.

Chiropractors claim to “adjust” or “manipulate” the spine. If this is true, the results or changes should be visible on x-rays taken after the adjustment or manipulation. The Pettibon Procedures are one of the few techniques in Chiropractic that cause measurable changes by using repeatable scientific methods to measure before and after x-rays. Pettibon x-ray analysis may involve over 41 lines and 23 angles to specifically locate the displaced vertebra.

The Pettibon Procedures include adjustment or manipulation by hand and also with one or more mechanical adjusting instruments for precise application of correcting forces. The purpose of the adjustment is to realign the vertebra and spinal units so they may “react” to the body’s environment (gravity). Patients are instructed in specific in office and at home exercises to speed recovery, stabilize the spine, rehabilitated soft tissue, and reduce the number of required office visits. Regularly scheduled exams monitor the patient’s progress as well as to modify adjusting and exercise procedures, which results in patients becoming healthier faster and staying healthy longer.

Chiropractic is a relatively new health care profession - just over 100 years old. Although the profession is young, many of its vitalistic principles date back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks, while possessing little knowledge of the internal structure of the human body, were aware of the body’s continual striving to heal itself. During the Renaissance, men of learning put forth theories which spoke of “vital forces” within the body that organized its resistance to disease. The “vital force” they spoke of is what chiropractors refer to as the body’s innate intelligence.

It was Daniel David Palmer who, in 1895, discovered the relationship among the vital forces, the nerve system, the vertebrae and the expression of health. He reasoned that an innate intelligence continuously strives to maintain the body’s organization. He also realized that this innate intelligence utilizes the nerve system to assemble and transmit the information necessary to ensure the proper function of the various parts of the body.

Palmer further reasoned that a vertebra that was even slightly misaligned could cause pressure on the spinal cord or small spinal nerves. This misalignment and interference, called a vertebral subluxation, modifies the impulses carried by the nerves and this, in turn, modifies bodily function. In such a state, the body is less able to function, maintain its own health, and ultimately to express life.

After adjusting a subluxated vertebra for the first time, Palmer witnessed the restoration of spinal integrity, a dramatic change in his patient's health and the birth of a profession.

Chiropractic grew rapidly under the guidance of Palmer’s son, B.J., who transformed the profession into an advanced science and a well-developed art. His goal was to be able to objectively locate and analyze vertebral subluxation and to verify the changes that occurred both when vertebrae became subluxated and when the vertebral subluxation was corrected.

Today, chiropractic has evolved into a highly developed science and art which deals not with disease, but with vertebral subluxation and its effect on the body’s natural striving toward health. Chiropractic, as a primary health care profession, recognizes and respects the body’s innate striving to maintain its own health and has developed sophisticated techniques for correcting vertebral subluxation, a major interference to that striving. Chiropractic views health as more than the absence of disease. It is optimum life expression on every level.