For those patients that receive manual adjustments, we’d like to discuss something that has significant bearing on all manual chiropractic practices – the crack! The cracking noise associated with manual adjustments (or cavitation, as it is properly termed) is something that is perceived as a required outcome for most patients. People regularly ask “Did that go?” or “Did that work?” if they don’t hear a cavitation following and adjustment.
A new study in JMPT found that an audible cavitation was not necessary in order to experience the benefits of the adjustment. The authors measured 2 different variables associated with pain relief, and found that the adjustment reduced pain equally regardless of whether there was an audible cavitation or not.
So, it is the actual mechanism of the adjustment, the high velocity low amplitude thrust, that results in pain relief. Whether or not it creates an audible cavitation means nothing.
