State of New Hampshire

BOARD OF CHIROPRACTIC EXAMINERS
6 Hazen Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301-6527
(603) 271-4560

RE: Scope of practice and craniopathy and TMJ evaluation and treatment

The New Hampshire Board notes in a March 12, 2003 letter that, “the Board does not typically offer advisory opinions to organizations regarding scope of practice.”

RSA 316-A:1 definition states, “The science of chiropractic deals with the analysis of any interference with normal nerve transmission and expression, the procedure preparatory to, and complementary to the correction thereof, by an adjustment of the articulations of the vertebral column and its immediate articulations for the restoration and maintenance of health; it includes the normal regimen and rehabilitation of the patient using the procedures which are currently taught in accredited chiropractic colleges at the time of matriculation without the use of drugs, surgery, or colonic irrigation.”

The New Hampshire Board in a April 14, 2003 letter offers the following explanation:

RSA 316-A:1 definition states, in part; “The science of chiropractic … includes the normal regimen and rehabilitation of the patient using the procedures which are currently taught in accredited chiropractic colleges at the time of matriculation …”

“Therefore, if procedures for the correction of ‘the TMJ and related cranial bones’ are currently taught in the majority of accredited chiropractic colleges, then these procedures would not violate the scope of practice act. In addition, post-graduate level courses taught through accredited chiropractic colleges would satisfy the requirement ‘at the time of matriculation.’”