The Grostic Procedure

Upper spine x-ray

The Grostic Procedure depends heavily on X-ray analysis of your upper spine.

The Grostic Procedure, named after the chiropractic researcher Dr. John F. Grostic, and had its origins in the Palmer Specific Upper Cervical technique in the mid-20th Century. It was one of several adjusting techniques developed in an effort to standardize chiropractic procedures and results.

Comfort and Results

It’s primarily a system of X-ray analysis, combined with an upper cervical “toggle” adjustment. Resting comfortably on your side, we use our hands to deliver an ultra-quick thrust to the upper bones of your spine—about ¼ of an inch. Just as quickly, we remove our hands. The objective is to allow the wisdom of your body to reposition spinal segments with the least amount of force.

This approach produces two key benefits:

  • Improved patient comfort
  • More consistent results

Pre- and Post X-rays

Accurate X-ray analysis is the real core of this procedure. We make a thorough X-ray evaluation which quantifies the side-to-side or rotational misalignments between the skull and the two uppermost bones of your spine. While many chiropractic approaches take pictures of the spine prior to the adjustment, we also take them immediately afterwards to document what has changed. We believe it’s this high level of accountability that helps us produce such great results.

High Standards

The Grostic Procedure is a highly-specialized adjusting approach within chiropractic. So rigorous and demanding is the training, only about 300 chiropractors in the world are trained in this technique.