Inside Your First Visit: What Thermography and Precision X-Rays Actually Show Us

Walking into a new chiropractor’s office often comes with a few questions. What will happen during my first visit? What are they looking for? How is upper cervical chiropractic different from traditional chiropractic care? At Atlas Specific Upper Cervical Care in Durango, we hear these questions every day. 

Unlike a typical chiropractic appointment, your first visit isn't centered around a quick adjustment. Instead, it's about gathering the information we need to determine whether the alignment of your upper cervical spine may be contributing to your symptoms before any correction is ever made. Here's what you can expect during your first visit.

It Starts With Understanding Your Unique Story

Every patient is different, so every first visit begins with a conversation. Before any scans or imaging, Dr. Tim will sit down with you to discuss your health history, current symptoms, previous injuries, and any treatments you may have already tried. Whether you're experiencing headaches, neck pain, back pain, dizziness, TMJ, migraines, or another chronic condition, understanding how your symptoms began and how they affect your daily life is an important part of the process.

Listening comes first because no two patients and no two spines are exactly alike.

Digital Thermography: Looking at Nervous System Function

Once your history has been reviewed, the next step is a digital infrared thermography scan.

This quick, painless, non-invasive scan measures subtle temperature differences along both sides of your spine. These temperature patterns can provide valuable information about how your nervous system is functioning.

Your nervous system controls much more than movement. It also helps regulate blood flow throughout your body, including the skin along your spine. When irritation or interference affects the nervous system, those temperature patterns may become uneven.

Thermography doesn't diagnose disease or replace other forms of medical imaging. Instead, it gives Dr. Tim another objective piece of information about how well your body is adapting and regulating itself.

One of the biggest benefits of thermography is that it provides a baseline. As your care progresses, future scans can be compared to your original findings, allowing both you and Dr. Tim to monitor changes in your nervous system over time.

Precision Upper Cervical X-Rays: Pinpointing Where Interference Begins

Thermography helps us understand how your nervous system is functioning; precision x-rays help us understand why.

Upper cervical chiropractic focuses on the relationship between the atlas (C1), the axis (C2), and the base of the skull. Even small changes in the alignment of these bones can affect the mechanics of the neck and the way the body compensates over time. Rather than relying on standard X-rays, we take a series of specialized upper cervical views that allow Dr. Tim to evaluate your anatomy with exceptional accuracy.

APOM (Open Mouth) View

Anterior-posterior open mouth view, or APOM, allows us to see the atlas and axis clearly without obstruction. This image helps measure side-to-side alignment, sometimes called laterality, and shows how the atlas relates to the rest of the cervical spine.

Lateral Cervical View

The lateral view provides a profile of your neck. From this angle, Dr. Tim evaluates the position and angle of the atlas while also examining your natural cervical curve. This helps identify how your neck and spine may have adapted over time.

Base Posterior View

The base posterior view looks upward through the base of the skull to evaluate rotation of the atlas. This specialized image provides information that cannot be seen on traditional cervical x-rays and completes the three-dimensional picture of your upper cervical alignment.

Together, these three views allow Dr. Tim to calculate a correction that is specific to your anatomy. Rather than applying a generalized adjustment, every correction is based on precise measurements unique to your spine.

Your Report of Findings: Connecting the Dots

After your examination is complete, Dr. Tim reviews all of the information gathered during your first visit. During your Report of Findings, you'll go over your health history, thermography results, x-rays, and examination findings together. More importantly, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and gain a clear understanding of what was found.

If upper cervical care is appropriate for your condition, Dr. Tim will explain your personal recommendations, what your care plan may involve, and what you can expect moving forward.

We believe patients should leave their first visit with answers, not confusion.

Why We Take This Approach

Many people come to Atlas Specific after months or even years of searching for relief without ever understanding why their symptoms continue to return. Headaches, migraines, dizziness, neck pain, back pain, TMJ disorders, and other chronic conditions rarely have a single obvious cause. That's why we don't believe in guessing.

By combining your health history, thermographic findings, physical examination, and precision upper cervical x-rays, we can make decisions based on objective information rather than assumptions.

Our goal isn't simply to help you feel better today. It's to identify whether an upper cervical misalignment may be contributing to your symptoms and, if appropriate, create a care plan that's tailored specifically to you.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

If you've been curious about upper cervical chiropractic or have wondered whether it may be able to help your condition, we'd be happy to answer your questions. Atlas Specific Upper Cervical Care proudly serves patients throughout Durango, Bayfield, Ignacio, Mancos, Cortez, Pagosa Springs, Farmington, Aztec, and surrounding communities.

To schedule your free consultation, click the link below, call 970-259-6803, or visit our Durango office. We look forward to helping you better understand your spine and your health.

Notice of Disclaimer

We are doctors of upper cervical chiropractic, but we are not necessarily your doctors. All content and information on this website are provided for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Reading or interacting with this website does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding your individual health concerns before making medical decisions.