01 1. About These Terms
These terms cover appointments booked with Toronto Chiropractor and the information published on this site. By booking an appointment or using this site you accept them.
Nothing here replaces what a clinician tells you in the room. The pages on this site describe how chiropractic generally works, and general writing cannot account for your history, your examination or your other conditions. Where the two differ, what you were told at your appointment applies.
02 2. What We Provide
Toronto Chiropractor provides chiropractic care: examination of the spine, joints and surrounding soft tissue, and treatment by manual techniques, soft tissue work, prescribed exercise and the other methods described on this site.
We do not offer chiropractic as a treatment for conditions outside the musculoskeletal system. That includes colic, ear infections, bedwetting, asthma and immune function. These are named rather than left out, because a vague scope lets a patient assume a claim that was never made.
03 3. Who We Can Treat
Most adults and children can be examined and treated for musculoskeletal complaints. Some people need clearance from a doctor first, including anyone with significant osteoporosis, an inflammatory joint condition, a bleeding disorder, recent spinal surgery or a known cancer.
Some symptoms are an emergency rather than an appointment. Loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness around the groin or inner thighs, weakness that is getting worse by the day, a sudden severe headache with neck stiffness, or spinal pain with fever all need urgent medical assessment the same day.
Where your problem belongs with another profession we will say so and tell you who to approach. We would rather lose the appointment than treat something that is not ours to treat.
04 4. Appointments and Cancellations
Appointments are held for you alone, so we ask that you cancel or move one as early as you can. The notice we ask for is given to you when you book and is also on your appointment confirmation.
Arriving late shortens your appointment rather than extending it, because the next person is booked. If you are running very late it is usually better to ring and move the appointment than to come for a few minutes.
Repeatedly missed appointments without notice may mean we ask you to confirm future bookings differently. Nothing is reserved for you beyond your next scheduled visit, so there is no block of appointments to forfeit.
05 5. Fees, Payment and Insurance
Fees are quoted to you before any treatment begins, along with the number of visits being proposed and what that number is based on. No figures are published on this site because several independent clinics use these pages, and a number here would be a quote none of them gave.
Payment is due at the time of the visit unless something else has been agreed in writing. We do not sell prepaid blocks of appointments, because a paid block removes our reason to tell you early that a course is not working.
Any insurance arrangement is between you and your insurer. We will supply the notes and receipts a claim reasonably needs, and we can bill some insurers directly, but we cannot promise that a claim will be paid or overturn a refusal.
06 6. Consent, Records and Privacy
Consent is taken after the examination findings have been explained to you and before any treatment starts, so that you are agreeing to something you actually know the shape of.
You may decline any individual technique and still be treated. That includes neck manipulation, which some people prefer to avoid and for which gentler alternatives exist. Declining does not end your care and you do not need to justify it.
We keep clinical records as we are required to and hold them securely. Where we write to your doctor, a specialist or an insurer, we do so with your agreement, and you may ask to see what was sent.
07 7. Limits and Outcomes
No outcome is promised. Chiropractic helps a good proportion of ordinary spinal and joint pain, it helps some people only partly, and it does not help everyone. Any clinic that guarantees a result is describing something other than clinical practice.
What we do commit to is measurable. Findings are recorded at the first visit, the same markers are measured again at a named review, and you are shown the comparison. If they have not moved, the approach changes or you are referred on.
Mild soreness for a day after treatment is common and settles by itself. Serious adverse events are rare, and the ones relevant to a technique are explained to you before that technique is used rather than afterwards.
08 8. Concerns, Complaints and These Terms
If something about your care concerns you, raise it with us first and directly. Most of it is a misunderstanding about findings or about how many visits were proposed, and both are quicker to settle in a conversation than anywhere else.
Chiropractors are regulated, and you may take a concern to the regulatory college for this province whether or not you have raised it with us. We will tell you how to do that if you ask.
These terms may change. The version and the date it was last updated are shown at the top of this page, and the terms in force are the ones published when you booked.