Choosing the Right Table for Your Practice
posted by on Monday, August 11, 2014
Choosing the Right Table for Your Practice
A chiropractor’s tools are few: his or her hands and a table.
Over the 30 to 40 years that a chiropractor typically practices, those hands and that table perform thousands of adjustments. Choosing the right table takes into consideration several factors: its design, its flexibility and, of course, price.
Table Design
Roughly 60 years ago, Dr. J. Clay Thompson stumbled upon a discovery: Thanks to a chiropractic table with a broken headpiece that “dropped” a little during treatments, his patients were seeing phenomenal results. He designed and patented his drop headpiece in 1955—and history was made.
Today, most chiropractic offices feature some type of drop table—featuring such options as a tilting headpiece or thoracic, lumbar or pelvic drops. Drops themselves are based on two different designs:
- Pin Drop: The pin-style drop is the most common and cost-effective drop mechanism available. When a manual (or electric) lever is pressed, a pin in the center of the table cushion “pops” the table up.
- Patented ErgoStyle Drop: Pivotal Health Solutions holds the patent to this improved drop that engages across the entire cushion, rather than a single pin. This ergonomic design gives chiropractors better accuracy during treatments since patients no longer have to be precisely positioned above a pin—and leaves chiropractors fresher at the end of the day as less force needs to be applied.
Flexibility
When shopping for a table, it’s important for chiropractors to consider both their current and future needs. So while they may need to buy a basic table when they launch their practice, it is more cost effective to invest in one that is designed for easy upgrades in the field as their practice grows.
Price
The final consideration is price. Drop tables start as low as around $1,400 and range up to $7,500 with multiple functions. But chiropractors should consider indirect costs and cost savings as well when contemplating buying a table. While pin-drops offer great value and quality, the patented ergonomic Ergostyle drops can save wear and tear on the body because of their unique design. For a chiropractor, the hands, wrists and shoulders are the first “tools” that start to wear down, so an initial investment today can ensure that both your table and your “tools” last for years and years.
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