Conditions
When nothing has worked
A sports chiropractor can often help when chiropractic, physical therapy, injections, or rest have not given lasting relief, because what is usually missing is a full assessment, not another treatment. At Next Move in Orlando, a 60-minute one-on-one exam reviews what you have tried, tests how you move, and builds a plan that changes the pattern or refers you on.
You've done the responsible things. Seen the providers, done the exercises, taken the rest. If you're reading this page, none of it stuck. That doesn't mean you're out of options. It usually means nobody has looked at the whole picture yet.
Sound familiar?
You've probably already tried most of this
None of these were wrong to try. Each one just treated a piece of the problem, on a clock too short to find the rest of it.
Chiropractic
The adjustments felt good. For a day, maybe two. Then the same pain came back, and eventually you stopped going because relief that has to be re-bought twice a week isn't relief.
Physical therapy
You got a sheet of exercises, a stretch of appointments that kept getting shorter, and a discharge when the insurance visits ran out, not when the problem did.
Injections & medication
They turned the volume down, sometimes for months. But masking a signal isn't the same as fixing what's sending it, and the volume crept back up.
Rest
You stopped doing the things that hurt. The pain waited. The moment you went back to your life, it did too, and now you've lost the activity and kept the pain.
Why nothing has stuck
The problem probably isn't you
Chronic pain that has outlasted several rounds of care usually has a few things in common. None of them are a lack of effort on your part.
Almost everything you’ve tried so far was probably passive: things done to you, adjustments, ultrasound, injections, rest. Passive care can genuinely help symptoms, but it has a ceiling, because it changes nothing about the strength, mechanics, and habits that keep producing the pain. When you’ve hit that ceiling three different ways, the answer usually isn’t a fourth passive treatment.
There’s also a time problem. Most of your appointments were probably ten to fifteen minutes. That’s enough to treat the spot that hurts. It is nowhere near enough to connect a stubborn knee to an old ankle injury, a training history, and two years of compensating, and chronic pain almost always lives in those connections.
And pain that has been around for years behaves differently than a fresh injury. The nervous system gets protective and turns the alarm sensitivity up, which is why flare-ups can feel wildly out of proportion to what triggered them. That oversensitivity is real, it’s common, and it responds to gradual, confident loading and understanding what’s happening, not to being poked at for ten minutes a week.
What we do differently
The appointment where someone looks at the whole picture
We won't promise to fix what four other treatments couldn't. Anyone who promises that after what you've been through isn't listening. What we offer is a different process, starting with a full hour.
01
Assess & Collaborate
This is the step that has probably been missing. A full 60 minutes: your whole history, every treatment you've tried and what each one did or didn't do, how you move, how you sleep, how you train or used to. The failed treatments aren't wasted time. They're data, and they narrow down what's actually going on.
02
Reduce Pain
Whatever calms your symptoms gets used deliberately: hands-on treatment, adjustment where it's earned, soft tissue work. Not as the whole plan, but as the opening. Relief buys a window. The window is for the next two steps.
03
Fix Your Patterns
This is where care that failed you usually stopped. We use the window to change something: the movement patterns, strength deficits, and loading habits that have been feeding the problem for years. It's slower than another adjustment. It's also the part that lasts.
04
Become Resilient
The goal isn't managing your pain forever. It's a body that handles your life without needing us every week, and a clear understanding of what to do if it ever flares again, so a bad week is a bad week and not a relapse.
- A full hour, one on one with the doctor. Nobody else is booked in your slot.
- Your past treatments get taken seriously, not dismissed. What failed tells us where to look.
- If we don't think we can help, you hear that at the exam, with a referral, not after ten visits.
When to see someone else
An honest word before you book
Long-running pain deserves one more screening question before anyone treats it again. If your pain comes with unexplained weight loss, fevers or night sweats, pain that wakes you at night and won’t ease with position changes, new bowel or bladder problems, progressive numbness or weakness, or a personal history of cancer, see a physician first. Those patterns need a medical workup, and ruling them out is not optional.
We screen for all of this in the exam, and it’s one more reason the first visit is an hour. If anything about your case belongs with another kind of provider, telling you so plainly is part of what you’re paying for.
One exam, no packages
New Patient Exam: $150 · 60 min
One flat price for the full hour, and you leave with an actual explanation and a plan, whether or not you book anything after it. No care packages, no pressure to commit to a schedule at the front desk.
If booking yet another exam feels like a gamble, start with the Free Consultation instead. It’s $0 (15 min · telehealth): tell Dr. Nguyen what you’ve tried, and he’ll tell you honestly whether this is worth your time.
Where to start
Chiropractor, physical therapist, or orthopedist?
When care has not worked, the question is not which profession is better. It is which one matches where you are right now, and whether the plan they offer includes the assessment and progressive loading you have not had yet.
Sports chiropractor at Next Move
You have been through passive care (adjustments, injections, rest, short PT visits) without lasting change, you have no red flags, and you want one clinician to reassess the whole picture, treat, and coach the rehab in the same hour. Also the right call for a second opinion when you are not convinced the last diagnosis explains your pain.
Physical therapist
You are recovering from surgery and need a formal post-operative protocol, your surgeon requires supervised rehab, or you are already progressing with a PT and just need more time. If your last PT experience was a stack of handouts and ten-minute visits, the format failed you, not physical therapy. A one-on-one PT is a fair option too.
Orthopedist or your physician
You have any red flag (unexplained weight loss, fever, pain that wakes you and will not ease with position, new bowel or bladder changes, progressive weakness or numbness, a history of cancer, or a significant trauma), you may need imaging, injections, or a surgical opinion, or your pain has never had a medical workup. Start there, not here. We refer these cases out and will take the rehab side afterward.
When imaging makes sense
Imaging is warranted when a red flag shows up, when nerve symptoms are progressing, or when a proper course of conservative care has failed and the next decision, an injection or a surgical opinion, depends on what the picture shows. It is not a good first move for its own sake: the American College of Physicians advises a selective approach because routine imaging for back pain adds cost and worry without improving outcomes, and degenerative findings are common in people with no pain at all. Next Move has no imaging on site; when your case needs it, Dr. Nguyen refers you to an imaging center or physician and goes through the report with you.
Going deeper
How to get the most out of a second-opinion exam
Bring the paper trail. Imaging reports (the radiologist's written report, not the disc), PT notes or a discharge summary, a list of injections with dates and how long each one helped, and a rough timeline of when this started and what has changed. Failed treatment is data. What eased things for a day tells us one thing about the driver; what did nothing at all tells us another.
Be ready to say what you cannot do, specifically. "It hurts" is where most ten-minute visits stop. What narrows a chronic case down is the detail: the third mile, the bottom of a squat at a certain weight, the second hour at a desk, rolling over at night. Say what your goal actually is, too. "Less pain" and "back to a Saturday long run" produce different plans, and only one of them can be measured.
Ask three questions before you leave any second opinion, ours included: what do you think is driving this, what would change your mind, and how will we know in a few weeks whether the plan is working. A provider who cannot answer the third one is about to sell you another open-ended series of visits. You should leave the exam with all three answered, in plain language, whether or not you book anything after it.
Questions
Straight answers
Is it worth spending money on a chiropractor if chiropractic already didn't work?
It depends on what you actually got last time. If it was a ten-minute adjustment twice a week, you got one treatment repeated, not an assessment. What you are paying for is the process: a full 60 minutes one-on-one, a review of every treatment you have tried and what each one did, and a plan built to end. If you are not sure that is different enough to be worth it, book the free 15-minute consult and ask Dr. Nguyen directly.
Should I see a chiropractor or a physical therapist for chronic back pain?
For ongoing back pain, both can help, and the research does not crown a winner: in a two-year trial of people with back pain, chiropractic manipulation and McKenzie physical therapy produced similar results, and neither was dramatically better than an educational booklet. What matters more is whether the plan includes a real assessment and progressive loading, not the letters after the name. Our model combines hands-on treatment and rehab in the same hour so you are not choosing between them.
Can I see a chiropractor and a physical therapist at the same time?
Yes, and you do not need to quit anyone to come here. What you want to avoid is two providers handing you conflicting exercise programs and neither knowing about the other. Tell us who else you are seeing, bring their notes if you have them, and we will coordinate. If your current PT or physician is already moving you forward, we may tell you to stay the course rather than duplicate it.
How many chiropractic visits will I need if my pain is chronic?
Nobody can give you an honest number before examining you, and a number quoted at booking usually means a package, not a plan. Pain that has lasted more than three to six months usually takes longer to change than a fresh strain, because you are retraining habits, not just calming tissue. What you get instead of a number is a plan with a stated goal and re-check points, and if you are not measurably better by then, we change the plan or refer you, rather than adding visits.
Do I need an MRI before getting a second opinion?
Usually not to get started. Bring any reports you already have; the written report is what we need, not the disc. Keep in mind that a picture is not the same as a diagnosis: disc bulges show up in roughly a third of pain-free people in their twenties and most people in their eighties, so an MRI finding does not automatically explain your pain. If the exam turns up red flags or your case needs imaging, we refer you out for it. There is no imaging on site.
What is different about a sports chiropractor if I have already seen a chiropractor?
The emphasis. A sports chiropractor treats the way you move and load, not just the joint that hurts. The adjustment is one tool, used when the exam earns it, next to soft tissue work, strength coaching, and rehab that gets progressed visit to visit. The other difference is the answer to your first question: if the exam suggests we are not the right provider, you hear that in the first hour, with a referral, not after ten visits.
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