A Review of Spinal Decompression Tables

Hey there and welcome back. I'm Dr. Vince Leone, executive producer and co-host of the Practice Builders Podcast. With my partner in crime, Dr. Kyle Pankinen, we deliver proven strategies to help you grow fast, specialize with confidence, and build profitable staff-run practices. Let's go ahead and dive into today's episode now. Hello and welcome to the Practice Builders Podcast. My name is Dr. Vince Leone, and Dr. Pankinen has the day off today, so, um, I want to do, um, I think a very important topic, how to choose a decompression table for your clinic if you're new to decompression. So I was in Dr. Bo Pierce's Chiropractic Business Club group, Facebook group, last week. And I, you know, one member was asking, you know, what table should I get? And so it's a great question. So if you're interested or thinking about adding spinal decompression to your practice, this It'll be the perfect episode for you so that you can get a sense of what are the different tables, what are the different price points, what are the benefits, pros and cons, et cetera. I'm not going to cover every single table on the market because that would be, I think, counterproductive to our time today. I try to keep these around 20, 30 minutes to kind of a commuter or like a treadmill. That's always— Dr. Kyle and I have always talked about that, you know, trying to keep the, the episodes fairly tight. So let's go ahead and dive right in. So I'm going to go from lowest to highest in terms of price point. Now, I always talk about, you know, when you are going to choose a table, you want to be thinking of obviously your budget and then how much space do you have. Okay. So that is a key factor, right? So if you, if you say, well, you know, I want to get in at the lowest particular price point. And, you know, I don't have much space. We're going to go on the lower end table. If you're like, well, I want, you know, I want the Rolls-Royce, and, you know, we'll talk about that as well. So starting at the bottom of the list, and again, when I say bottom of the list, I'm not saying that these tables don't work. I'm just saying that they are on the lower price point spectrum, right? So we'll start with the Chattanooga. And so I think Chattanoogas are around some— you certainly can get them used for like $8,000 to $10,000. I think new they're around $15,000 or something like that. This is a cable table, right? So that they're going to be on the table, there's going to be— they're going to be harnessed up. The pulley, uh, cable is going to be attached to that, um, that lumbar harness, and then that's what does the pull and release, pull and release. Um, I don't love this table personally. Nothing against the company, it's a massive company, and we have clients that get really good results. We have actually quite a few clients that have the Chattanooga. And so, um, here's the kicker and the little bit of a challenge with the Chattanooga. There are some doctors that are— and PTs that have these in their clinic, and they're, and they're just billing insurance, $30 a pull. Well, if you're charging $100 a pull and you're, you know, billing it as— or, you know, positioning it as decompression, and then the guy down the street has a Chattanooga and he's billing it as traction and positioning it It's just traction. That's a disconnect in the patient's mind. So if you said, well, what's the cheapest table I can get started with? That'd be the Chattanooga. And if you're okay with that kind of aspect of it, then I think, you know, it's not a bad table to start with. So it is fairly economical in terms of its size as well. And so it kind of makes it easy to add in. You know, from an aesthetics perspective, it's not super fancy looking. But, you know, again, in those situations, you know, we really— we want the doctor to be the star. We don't want the table to have to sell, quote unquote, sell the patient. In our model, we want the doctor to be the expert, right? The true disc expert, the specialist that people are coming to see, the doctor, not the table. Okay. So that's the Chattanooga. Next one up. Is the DOC table, the D-O-C table. This is around $19,000. I think this personally is a big step up from the Chattanooga. So if I was looking at Chattanooga or if I'd go pay a little bit more, I'd definitely go DOC in this situation. Much more functionality. It's an actuator table. In other words, the patient's going to— there's no pulley, right? So they're going to be on the table. They're going to be secured to the table and the table is going to actually do the decompression. The table is going to separate, right? The pull and release, pull and release. If you're listening to this, I'm miming with my hands. But anyways, point being is the dock table at $19K, like I said, if we were going to say, hey, I want something under $30K, I would go dock over Chattanooga. And what's nice also, A, the cervical is, from what I hear, is quite good. In other words, on some tables, the cervical is It was a little uncomfortable, frankly. So we had the DRX-9000, we had 4 of them. The cervical now, and again, this was back in 2018, so I'm sure they have improved it. But back then, the harness, like the headpiece, it just was not very comfortable, frankly. So hopefully they've improved that. I'm sure they probably have. But I've been told the cervical on the dock is quite nice. And you can also go prone. Which is also good. I was just talking to Dr. Brian Self. He's the rep over at Doc, and you know it was interesting. It's kind of explaining this. You know, ages 20 to 40, you know pain on flexion relief and extension. You put them into prone; they're going to do much much better than supine. So it's nice to have that functionality. I think in terms of the prone and supine, you're not going to have a ton. Right, that need it. Because if you think about it, your bread and butter patient's going to be 40 plus, right? 40 to 70. That's, that's your, your— the vast majority of your patients are going to be between 40, 45, and 70. Um, uh, and so, you know, for the vast majority of cases, supine will be just fine. Now what's interesting is we do have clients that have, you know, say an Accuspiner or a DRX, and then they have a dock as a, a secondary table that they either do Again, can do prone or they do the cervical there. So that's something to think about if you have— if you already have a really nice table or an upper tier table and you want a secondary table, but you don't want to drop another $100K or $75K, the Dock I think would be a good idea there. Okay, next. So that's the Dock. Next up is the Hill DT. So, you know, if you've listened to any of our podcasts, you know I like the Hill. It's somewhere in the mid-30s. In terms of price point, it has a small footprint. It's very nice looking, well put together. Hill obviously is a longstanding company in the chiropractic profession, right? It's a really good company. And I think they've built a really good product in the Hill DT. Really nice functionality. The cervical I've heard is very good. There's multiple settings that you can— that are very easy to use on the interface. It's a very nice tablet interface. And Uh, uh, you know, doctors get great results. By the way, everyone I've talked to, they have the dock, they get really good results too. Now, the only drawback would be you can't go prone. Okay, so, um, again, I don't think that's a massive drawback personally, but some doctors, you know, um, do. That's why I'm telling you all this, so that you can make your own decision. Um, but I like the Hill. You know, full disclosure, um, I don't have any You know, participation in Hill, but we are partners in the Decompression Summit. I always like to be transparent, but we are partners at the Decompression Summit in September. By the way, you should put that on your calendar, September 25th to 27th in Dallas, Texas. It's going to be phenomenal. This is our 4th year. We're opening up the big room. So we had 109 or 110 doctors last year. We're pushing for 150 this year. And, um, uh, it's going to be fantastic. So anyway, save the date. We'll be sending out early bird here in April, I believe. Uh, get you $100 off for that. So, um, so that's the Hill DT. Again, great table. Dr. Pankinen has 2 of them and, um, uh, loves them. Love— has loved them for a long time. Jeff VanderWal is the owner— not the owner, but he's the rep, um, at Hill DT. Um, or does he own I don't know the relationship there. Anyway, so he's the business guy at Hill DT. Dr. Tim Burkhardt is the clinical director, uh, both really, really good gentlemen. And Dr. Burkhardt is, um, excellent clinically. So, um, by the way, if you do go Hill, um, one of the things, uh— now obviously if you buy a table, I'm going to tell you you should hire me, right? Because we have everything— clinical systems, protocols, marketing, staff training. Mindset, you know, financial tools. I mean, literally everything you freaking need to grow spinal decompression. So I'm telling you, if you buy a table, you should hire us. That's how strongly I believe in our services. But that being said, Dr. Burkhardt, you know, for a— I don't even know what it is, $5,000, I think, will fly out and train you and your team for a day. So that to me is a no-brainer, um, uh, just because he's, uh, he's just awesome. He's great, great doctor, great guy. So anyways, that's Hill DT. Moving on, um, next is Accuspina. So, um, really like the Accuspina. I think it's mid-70s in terms of price point. Um, again, I, I'm not gonna quote like, oh, it's $74,000. I, I don't, you know, I know it's around mid-70s, right? So, um, sometimes you can Maybe they're running a special or whatever. So I'm just kind of giving you the rough numbers. Those are new price points. Obviously you can always get them secondhand, but, you know, shipping a table and getting it calibrated and all that. I mean, these tables are fairly sensitive, you know, so as they should be, 'cause they're trying to, you know, create a lot of change in the disc. So, you know, I know to us, like if you're gonna buy a used AccuSpine, I have one client, Bought a used Accuspina. Well, it was going to be— now he ended up doing it himself. Don't ask me how. Assembling it himself with the help of another individual. But, you know, it was like 10 grand to have someone from the company come out and assemble it. So I was just like, I would just be like, hey, I'm just going to buy new. Point being is they're about mid-70s. It's a large table. It is impressive looking. Every client I know that has one loves it. And so they get really good results. It's, again, from a sales perspective, you know, I think it's, it's super impressive looking, right? It looks very significant. Now, that being said, it is very large and it's tall. So you need space for this. You need height. You need, you know, a good size, a decent size room. And so if you're going to, you know, say, hey, I want a really Blow-up decompression and get multiples of these. Well, then you better have space, right? So, you know, in our clinic, we had— again, we had 4 DRXs. It was a 3,500-square-foot clinic, and we had open adjusting concept. So we just had the tables boom, boom, boom, boom, just lined up right next to each other. So with these larger tables, you need to have space, right? Because it's not just the table. Well, the patient has to be able to comfortably get on and off. You need a harnessing section, you need the You know, space for the tech to go and get in between the tables properly. They can't be like turning sideways to get in between the tables. So you gotta have space for these, for the big boys. But AccuSpina, Larry Rubin's the guy over there, very nice gentleman, really like him. And again, everyone I've talked to absolutely loves it. The only drawback, and again, I'm agnostic on tables. I always tell, you know, doctors join our program 'cause there's other coaching programs. They only use the DRX or they only use the AccuSpina or they only use the Chattanooga. We are agnostic. As long as it's FDA-cleared for spinal decompression, and as long as, you know, you're comfortable and know how to use the darn thing, then yes, we are comfortable with it. Our protocols work on all tables because that's what the research has essentially done. As long as decompression is taking place in the disc through the table, then our protocols work. So, we're agnostic on tables. I've just given you my opinion because I've been in this space since 20— 2000. 10, and, um, and I love it. So back to the AccuSpina. Here's the only drawback for the cervical. You— it's a little, what I've been told, quote unquote wonky. So, uh, so anyway, so again, if you're listening to this, I am miming the, the position. You have the table here, and then you have the, the upright piece for the AccuSpina. It goes up and then over the patient. Well, It's a pulley table, so it's going to— the pulley is going to come out from that upright portion and attach the lumbar harness. Well, if it's cervical, my understanding is you need to then re— you know, it needs to go under the table and then over to the cervical portion. It doesn't seem like a phenomenal design to me. That's just my opinion. I'm probably going to piss off a lot of— all these table companies are going to probably not love me after this episode, but I'm not here For the table companies, I'm here for you doctors, right? Because I'm trying to help you make a good quality decision. And remember, I always say when you're buying— or sorry, when you are getting into spinal decompression, you need to make 2 investments. One is in the table, 2 is in yourself. Do not buy a table and expect it to sprout money. That's not the way it works. You've got to become a true expert, right? You have to become an expert in disc pathology and anatomy, and you need to be an expert in spinal decompression, pull weights. How many visits? You got to have a proven protocol. You need to know how to evaluate a patient. You have got to do a world-class exam because if you're going to ask someone for $3,000, $5,000, $7,000, or whatever the number is, they have got to trust you. And trust comes from demonstration of expertise, right? Just like I'm doing right now. Obviously, I know all about spinal decompression, so I'm starting to hopefully develop some trust and rapport with you. You're like, well, hey, look, Dr. Vince at least knows about these tables. And you know, the pros and cons and all that type of stuff. Well, you start to develop trust a little bit, right? Same thing with patients. When you're in the exam, that is your chance to shine. That is your chance to show them, wow, this doctor really knows his stuff. I've never had an exam like that. That's what our doctors hear. Hey there, it's Dr. Vince. And if you're getting value from this episode, please make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you know another doc who's ready to grow their practice, share this with them. It might be exactly what they need right now. Thank you in advance. And now back to the show. Right, because Dr. Pankinen has created what we call our world-class exam training for cervical and lumbar. And when they go through that and they do that flow sheet, right, all the standing orthopedic tests, all the seated, all the prone, and all the supine orthopedic tests, you are going to know what the primary pain generator is. You are going to know 100%, is this a decompression patient or not? Right? If not, hey, it's a chiro patient. Great. We can still help them. But the point being is that's what, you know, you have got to demonstrate expertise. You got to be an expert. Table is not going to do that for you. The table is going to do a lot of the work once you get them into the plan, but got to get them there first, right? So, so that's the AccuSpina. I like it. Good table. Not inexpensive. $75K. It's a good chunk. But again, Great results. Next, and the last one we're going to cover, and then we'll have a bonus one that we'll we'll talk about the DRX 9000. So I I have a soft spot, you know, for the DRX 9000 again. Obviously, that's what we had, and you know built a multi-million dollar clinic with with those. And in fact, just saw Salim, who owns Excite Medical, saw him in Vegas at Parker, which was a fantastic event, by the way. But it was nice to chat with him for a little bit, and. And again, really nice table. There's pros and cons. One, it looks super impressive, right? So it's large. It is, you know, they're making upgrades to apparently the algorithm. I've been on that thing a million times. It's very comfortable. It is only supine, can't do prone. And I talked about the cervical side of things that I didn't love, but I think they probably have solved that. They do sell a lumbar only. I believe that's around $80,000. And then if you get the cervical and lumbar, the new one is $115,000. So that's obviously going to be on the highest price point for US-based decompression. Now, we haven't talked about some of the other tables. And again, I think that's okay. We don't have to cover every single table in the market. But those are the main, in my opinion, those are the main tables. Chattanooga, the DOC or the DOC table, the Hill DT, Accuspina, and the DRS. X. Um, and, um, uh, and so that's it. And so what I— if you're, again, if you're new to decompression, um, you know, you probably don't want to dump a ton of money. Now, if you're already a 7-figure practice, then hey, maybe not, right? Maybe you do want to go to the big bad boy right away, because if you're, if you're a 7-figure clinic and it's all— you already have a really Yeah. And you have a really nice professional office and you have a nice, you know, good-sized team. And, um, you know, the, the machine is already working really well and patients are very impressed by how it looks and operates. It's not going to be great if you bring in a Chattanooga. I'm just being honest with you guys. Um, you, you want to match, you know, if you're a 7-figure clinic already, you want to match, you know, what your current operational level is to the table, right? So then I would be leaning into, um, you know, a more, uh, robust table on the upper end on the price points. And I would put in Hill there too. Hill's a really good-looking table. But again, it's not like that super robust looking like the Accuspina or the DRX. The only caveat is be thinking, hey, down the road, if this blows up, do I want to drop another $70K or $100K on another table? So something to be thinking about again. Again, I think they all pay for themselves many, many times over. So I don't think that's a huge deal if you're already at that level, but it is a consideration. So I just want you to be thinking, um, you know, where you're starting now and where you want to be in, say, 3, 5 years. Do you want to transition to be more of a decompression-focused clinic? So in other words, you're heavy chiro now, you're going to add decompression. Well, maybe in 5 years you want to be heavy decompression and a little lighter on the chiro, or have 1 or 2 associates running all the chiro and you can just be focusing on decompression, where it's less wear and tear on your body, higher ticket, all this, you know, all the good things that we like about decompression. Um, by the way, if you are a 7-figure owner and you, um, want to kind of know, hey, how do we create this model, there's an episode that we did early on in the podcast, I think it was episode 7 or something like that, called Practice Nirvana. So that's where we kind of go through how to create that model. So I'd check that out. Um, okay, so that's it. Um, the only bonus table— so we just, um, signed up a great new client in Scotland, Dr. Gavin Sinclair, really fantastic doctor. He's got 6 clinics, he's absolutely crushing it. Um, and he bought what's called a Vert Biotech, and I had never heard of this table. Um, and, uh, it's, it's out of South Korea, and it was developed by neurosurgeons and you know, physiotherapists. I don't know if chiropractors are even involved in that, but it's in their hospital systems. So, um, if you, if you get a chance, check that out. Just type— just Google Vert Biotech. Uh, it is a very cool looking table, one of the coolest looking ones I've seen, honestly. And they have a couple models. I think they have 3 different models, but their, their kind of top line model is, is, uh, super sweet. Um, but they're apparently getting excellent results with that as well. And they're looking at it from a little bit of a different perspective, right? They're, they're driven by, you know, You know, kind of the surgeon side of things, which I think is very impressive because they're just thinking about things a little bit differently in that healing process. And and also, hey, what else can this table help with outside of just disc issues? You know, so yeah, cool stuff happening in the world of decompression. There is a lot more research. We have research coming out of Egypt and Pakistan, and we just had a large study done in South USF, University of South Florida, 267 pages. So yeah, there's a, there's a lot of growth in the decompression area. It's a good time to get into decompression now. And of course, we have our Decompression Accelerator Program, 90-day sprint, help you add and grow spinal decompression. And you can either start it without a table, or if you already have a table and you're just not generating, it's not working, the whole lane of service is not working properly and you need, you need help. 100%, we can help you there. If you— if it's working okay but you just need a bunch more new patients, we can help you there too. You can check that out at decompressionaccelerator.com. But, um, so hope this has helped. I hope this is, um, you know, if you're thinking about your first table, your second or third table, I hope this has given you, um, a, you know, a nice, uh, high-level overview of what your options are, what their price points are, what the pros and cons are, so that you can make a well-informed decision. So that's going to wrap up this episode of the Practice Builders Podcast, How to Choose the Right Table for You. And we'll see you on the next episode. We'll probably be joined by Dr. Penkinen on that one, but appreciate you all for tuning in. If this has given you value, please consider sharing it with a colleague or a friend and give us a review, like and subscribe, all that good stuff. So we'll talk to you on the next episode. I'm Dr. Vince Leone. Thank you. Take care. Hey, it's Dr. Vince again, and hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you're ready to grow your practice fast with high-value decompression patients, then the Decompression Accelerator could be a phenomenal option for you. This is our 90-day sprint to help you scale with proven systems, staff-driven protocols, and full marketing support, and it's all guaranteed. Spots are limited. Head to www.decompressionaccelerator.com to learn more.