An acute condition is something that has brought symptoms on relatively quickly, or that the symptoms you do have have flared up or are worse than normal.
A chronic condition is something that you have had for a relatively long period of time.
A good example is that osteoporosis is usually a chronic condition of not having enough calcium uptake into your bones. The broken hip from falling and fracturing brittle bones is the acute condition of osteoporosis.
Another example is that you have had a chronic condition of low back pain (achy on and off for years) due to misalignment or subluxations of the lower back. The Sciatic pain when you bent down and twisted to pick up something is the acute condition of the lumbar (low back) subluxations..
Acute Care, Corrective Care, and Long-term care.
Acute care is for when you are in the middle of a migraine, you want immediate relief. or You just pulled your low back out and you would like to be able to walk without being bent over. This could take anywhere from 2 visits to 15 visits depending upon the acute condition.
Corrective care is the treatment to correct the underlying subluxations and structural imbalances that are contributing to your symptomatic problem. To bring your cervical curve back into a normal C (lordotic) curve rather than the reversed curve that it became because of poor sleeping and work habits. Or It is the adjustments and the exercise plan to strengthen up your abdominal musculature to realign your lumbar spine to prevent low back pain.
Long Term Care is also known as Maintenance Care or Wellness Care. (I personally call them “tune ups”). This is periodic care where you come in once every 4 – 12 weeks, just to make sure that things are still aligned and that you don’t have any major subluxations. Typically the older you are and/or the more injuries you have sustained the more frequent you will need to be checked on Wellness Care. The younger you are, the more you exercise and strengthen up your body, the less often you will need to come in for tune ups.