Why do I need to use this wedge?
Wedges provide a corrective outcome for spinal issues. Very often in the clinic, we see clients with tilted spines, scoliosis and the most common type of spinal misalignment we see is a “forward head carriage”.
This is where the neck moves forward, and you lose the curve in the neck. We should have a smooth C-shaped curve through the neck, which then reverses through the thoracic spine and then curves back in the lower spine.
There should be an S-shape to your back for the springy shock absorption, which allows healthy movement, keeping us upright and allows us to walk much further and move faster when we need to.
When we lose that neck curve, it moves forward and it’s all too often we see that due to the current demands on human beings over the last 20, 30 years. More desk space work, the emergence of iPads and iPhones. There has been a lot more stress through the neck.
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You only need to stand at a station platform and look at everybody on the platform with their heads tilted forwards looking at their phones to see why there could be spinal issues.
When we diagnose these spinal misalignments through X-ray, we can then prescribe specific exercises and also orthotic blocks in order to try and correct the alignments, thus getting the spine back in the best position and restoring proper function to allow that person to get back to their day to day.
The two types of blocks we use are either a cervical block or a lumbar block or wedge. The most common is the cervical wedge. This is placed underneath the neck at the base of the shoulders to restore the normal cervical curve and try and get it as close to 43 degrees as possible.
You need to lie on this in a specific place depending on where the head is translating forwards. Mostly it’s right at the base of the neck just on the top of the shoulders and if you feel that the head is going too far backwards, then that’s perfect. You need to lie on this for 15 minutes due to the elastic properties of the ligaments in the spine.
Now you’re not going to see a difference after just doing this one time. There has to be a repeatable, deliberate training of the neck over a period of at least three months in order to see change, coupled with regular chiropractic adjustments to manipulate the bones.
The second orthotic wedge we use is the lumbar wedge and this can be used in two ways. The first we often use for a reduced lumbar curve. So the spine is too straight. This then puts the weight of the ribs and the head down through the discs. They’re not designed to take up weight. The facet joints are the loading joints of the spine. So we really want to try and increase the curve to get that springiness and shock absorption back in the spine, especially if you’re an athlete or you enjoy long walks.
The second type of reason we use this is if there’s an excessive curve. A lot of ladies who had babies describe to us after having the baby and being pregnant that the curve started to accentuate and this is very common purely because of their weight being carried over nine months, especially the last trimester. It does put a lot more stress on the base of the spine, forcing that curve to increase. So to reduce this curve, we placed the wedge underneath the – like their buttocks just above the coccyx, keeping the knees bent, allowing the spine to sink back in.
Again using the lumbar wedge for 15 minutes. It has to be 15 minutes in order to get a tensile strain on the ligaments, in order to bring them back into the best position.
We also recommend using Dennerolls. These are part of the CBP protocol, which is the most researched technique in chiropractic by Deed Harrison and he’s seeing amazing results with spinal correction. We’ve adopted a lot of the techniques that they use to bring the best for our clients.
If you haven’t used the wedge, please let us know and we can show you how to use one and if you’re unsure of how to use it, please also let us know and we can direct you in the right way.
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