When it comes to chiropractic care, choosing the right chiropractic clinic is crucial. The issue becomes even more significant when you’re seeking care after a traumatic event such as a car accident, when time is of the essence in your treatment and you’ll probably be filing claims or lawsuits to cover your medical expenses (we’ll discuss why that is in further detail below). But how can you go about choosing the right chiropractor? Since all chiropractors have essentially the same level of training — a Doctor of Chiropractic degree — online chiropractor ratings and reviews are one common place prospective patients turn in order to get a bit more information.

But sometimes these online reviews can be a bit misleading, and it’s tough to get a lot of information from a simple rating system. Patients are as likely to leave a one-star rating because their insurance wasn’t accepted as they are because their treatment went badly. And because no two cases are the same, good outcomes in a past case don’t guarantee good outcomes in your case. So what can you find in chiropractor ratings and reviews that can be helpful? Here are some things to look out for:

Willingness to Listen to Your Opinion

One of the biggest reasons some people choose chiropractic care, as opposed to treatment by a traditional physician, is that chiropractors look at health and wellness holistically and tend to be more open to patient opinions and feelings. So if you see in ratings that past patients felt comfortable participating in their own treatment (or vice versa), that’s useful information.

Manual Adjustments vs. Use of Tools

This issue isn’t so much of a right-and-wrong one as it is about finding what’s right for you. Some chiropractors stick to manual chiropractic adjustments. These are effective, and have been used ever since the 1800s, but some patients find them to be a little too rough. In that case, a practitioner who uses some of the newer, high-tech chiropractor tools on the market in order to perform adjustments with less force and more precision might be a better option.

Treatment Documentation and Support

When it comes to chiropractic care after car accidents, documentation is extremely important. That’s because those medical records will be an important part of your case should you file an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. So check out what past patients have to say about the organization of the clinic’s files, the doctor’s (or doctors’) willingness to give depositions, and other related issues.

Do you have anything to add when it comes to assessing the value of chiropractor ratings and reviews online? Share your thoughts in the comments.