The Pierce Results System in White Marsh MD

Chiropractor White Marsh MD Kristian Esteve

Pierce Results System, (formerly known as Pierce/Stillwagon, or PST) was developed by Vernon Pierce, D.C., Sr. It is a biomechanical analysis of spine kinematics (or spinal motion), utilizing “stress views” of the spine (flexion, extension, rotation, and/or lateral bending views where required) or videofluoroscopy (VF, or “moving x-ray” studies) to determine the loss of spinal function, which is at the core of the “vertebral subluxation complex”.

This system evolved from the earlier Pierce-Stillwagon technique (PST), which itself evolved from a core of chiropractic techniques, including Palmer HIO (Upper Cervical or Toggle Recoil Technique), Thompson, Logan Basic, and the Reaver system, with their reliance upon palpation, leg checks, and “pattern analysis” utilizing thermocouple (thermographic) instrumentation.

It is currently practiced at our clinic in White Marsh MD using VF, the DT-25 for computerized thermogaphic assessment, hand and instrument adjusting, the Pierce 230 adjusting table, and may also include the new computer assisted adjusting instrument. Patient response to spinal adjusting is monitored with the use of the DT-25 or with Stillwagon’s Visi-therm for changes in the pattern analysis and improvements with the “Atlas fossa” temperature. A description of thermography is available.

How The Pierce Technique is Used in White Marsh MD

The Pierce Technique is an “analysis system”, it’s not just another way to adjust vertebra.

The basic Doctor’s equipment is the DT-25, a Precision Adjusting instrument, your hands, and access to x-ray facilities.

A table with “drops” will improve your results.

A VF (videofluoroscopy)system will reduce patient radiation exposure, while giving you full kinematics for assessment, and finally

The computerized adjusting instrument will further assist and refine your analysis.

About The Founder

Walter “Vern” Pierce, D.C.
By Pattie Stechschulte
In the early 1950s, a young Walter “Vern” Pierce, D.C., was working as a corpsman in the U.S. Navy at Guantamono Bay, Cuba. Besides performing his standard duties of emergency procedures and caring for his fellow soldiers, he also helped out with autopsies. “It taught him a lot about the human body,” said his son, Dr. Vernon Pierce Jr. “He wanted to help people but he did not like the medical philosophy. Since his uncle was a chiropractor, he decided to look into it.”

Dr. Pierce graduated from Palmer College in 1955 and returned to his hometown in Dravosburg, Penn., to start a practice. Through the next five decades, he dedicated his life to finding a better way to get results for his patients, leading him to develop new methods, techniques and equipment that changed the way thousands of chiropractors analyzed and adjusted their patients.

He always knew what he was doing when he would adjust somebody. If there was any doubt, he waited. That is why he always got the results that he did.

Finding a Better Way
“When my dad got out of chiropractic school, he was strictly upper cervical, then he learned Logan Basic at a seminar,” explained Dr. Pierce. “He took care of a little boy who was very sick. My dad adjusted his atlas then he adjusted his axis, but he was still sick. He didn’t know what else to do, so he tried the Logan basic and the kid calmed down.”

“Chiropractic just wasn’t his profession, it was his life. He strived to find better, efficient ways to locate the subluxation and the correction of the subluxation,” Pierce added.
Using his interest in the human body, he continued to evolve his chiropractic technique to help his patients. Pierce went on to explain that his father realized that when somebody had a total reversal of the curve and he would adjust their C5, he would get fantastic changes almost immediately on some people. On other people he wouldn’t get the fantastic changes. “He started studying the spine in motion and he discovered that C5 is not always the problem, sometimes it may be C4, C6 or other problems in the cervical spine,” described Pierce. He worked with a company to develop motion X-rays where he would gather a set of 40 views in order to see the patient’s spine in motion—it was known as videoflouroscopy.

“He was adamant that he did not have a technique, he had a system,” said Dr. Robert Keeler, who worked with Pierce for over 10 years. “It was a results system. He incorporated a lot of insight from different chiropractors and difference sources, but his coordinating it all into a system had to do with the reasoning and rationale for his rhyme and reason of knowing when to adjust and when not to adjust. He always knew what he was doing when he would adjust somebody. If there was any doubt, he waited. That is why he always got the results that he did.”

The Humanitarian and Educator
“Dr. Pierce sent me to chiropractic school,” said Keeler. After learning that his own chiropractor had not arranged his admission into Palmer as he promised, Keeler went to see another local chiropractor, Dr. Pierce, who was a stranger, to ask for help. Upon hearing his story, he immediately contacted the admission director at Palmer but could not secure his admission. Instead, he arranged for his enrollment into Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic.
After graduating, Keeler practiced about 45 minutes away from Dr. Pierce’s office, but he spent every Tuesday afternoon to work with him on different projects.

“On a professional level, Dr. Pierce was uncompromising, brilliant and existing on a different intellectual plane,” described Jeffrey Hunt, D.C., another Pennsylvania chiropractor who was greatly influenced by Pierce. “His objective was not centered around himself or the promotion of his system, but rather the greater good of the patient.” “Other chiropractors used to complain that his technique was always changing. Yes it changed. Because it developed,” said Pierce. “He would always tell me, if you have a rhyme or reason for doing something, you never get yourself in trouble, you have to have a reason for doing it. What drove him was getting sick people well—results.”

Original article at: http://www.chiro.org/ChiroZine/FULL/Verne_Pierce.html