Customized Treatment Plans

Personalized Upper Cervical Care Designed for Long-Term Healing & Stability

At Atlas Specific Chiropractic in Hiawatha, Iowa, no two patients receive the same care plan—because no two patients have the same history, anatomy, injuries, or nervous system patterns.

Our treatment plans are customized, data-driven, and based on objective findings, not guesswork.
Your health journey is unique, and your plan should be too.

What We Base Your Care Plan On

Every customized treatment plan is built using three primary pillars:

1. Your Upper Cervical X-Rays (Structure)
‍We take three specific upper cervical X-ray views—Lateral, APOM, and Base Posterior—measured down to the 1/100th of a degree and millimeter.
These images reveal:

-The exact direction of your atlas and axis misalignment
-How long it has been present
-Whether degeneration or ligament injury is involved
-The correction vector needed for your adjustment
-How stable or unstable your neck may be

Your X-rays become the blueprint for your individualized care plan.

2. Your History & Symptom Patterns (Function)
‍Your story matters.

We take into account:

-Injuries or accidents
-Surgeries
-Concussions
-Whiplash events
-Occupational or repetitive stress
-Past treatments
-Current symptoms
-Your health goals

This helps us understand how long your issue has been developing, how your body compensates, and what types of support you may need as you heal.

3. Our Clinical Experience & Objective Findings
‍With thousands of adjustments performed and detailed neurological scans at every stage of care, we build plans around:

-Functional neurological thermography (Tytron C5000)
-Palpation findings
-Muscle tone and tension patterns
-Posture and head tilt
-How well you "hold" your adjustments
-Response to previous care

This allows us to create a care plan tailored specifically to what your body needs—not a generic chiropractic schedule.

How Customized Treatment Plans Work

Each plan is crafted to balance effectiveness, stability, and long-term neurological improvement.

Phase 1: Correction & Stabilization
‍During early care, our goal is to:

-Correct upper cervical misalignment
-Reduce inflammation
-Improve neurological communication
-Calm the fight-or-flight system
-Restore alignment patterns
-Begin reversing long-standing compensations

This phase may involve more frequent visits, depending on the severity of your misalignment and how well your body holds the adjustment.

Most patients begin noticing changes during this phase—sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually.

Phase 2: Healing & Remodeling (6–18 Months)
‍Once your alignment becomes more stable, we slowly space visits farther apart.
This phase focuses on:
-Strengthening supportive muscles and ligaments
-Allowing the spine to remodel
-Removing old compensation patterns
-Improving posture
-Supporting autonomic regulation
-Building long-term alignment stability

Because ligaments heal slowly—and some misalignments may have been present for years—full correction and stabilization may take 6–18 months.

Spacing visits out as you progress helps ensure durable, lasting change without over-adjusting.

Phase 3: Maintenance & Long-Term Wellness
‍Once the body becomes stable and symptoms are reduced or resolved, we transition into maintenance care, typically spaced farther apart.

The goal of maintenance care is to:
-Keep the upper cervical spine aligned
-Prevent relapse or regression
-Support healthy nerve function
-Maintain better posture
-Reduce flare-ups
-Maximize long-term spinal and neurological health

Most maintenance patients choose periodic check-ins because they feel:
-Clearer
-Lighter
-Calmer
-More mobile
-More resilient

Your body simply works better when your atlas is aligned.

Why “Holding” Your Adjustment Is the Real Goal

The goal is not to adjust you every visit.
The goal is to help you hold your correction for as long as possible.
When the atlas stays properly aligned:

-Muscles don’t spasm
-Nerves calm down
-Posture normalizes
-Inflammation decreases
-The autonomic system becomes more balanced
-Healing accelerates

Holding your adjustments—even for weeks at a time—is one of the strongest signs that your spine and nervous system are improving.

Your Plan Evolves as You Heal
‍Because healing is not linear, your customized treatment plan will adjust over time based on:

-New neurologic scan results
-How well you hold
-Symptom improvements
-Lifestyle changes
-Stress levels
-Structural changes seen on re-imaging (when clinically indicated)

Your plan is dynamic—not rigid—because your body is dynamic.

Experience a Plan Built Just for You

If you’ve tried traditional chiropractic, physical therapy, medications, or other treatments without lasting relief, a customized upper cervical plan may be what your body has been missing.

At Atlas Specific Chiropractic in Hiawatha, Iowa, we help patients throughout Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, the I-380 Corridor, and Eastern Iowa get the personalized care they deserve.

📞 Call (319) 343-8540 or schedule your first visit today.
Your healing needs a plan as unique as you are—and we’re here to build it.