California Code of Regulations › Title 16 - Professional and Vocational Regulations › Division 4 - State Board of Chiropractic Examiners › Article 1 - General Provisions › Section 302 - Practice of Chiropractic

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a)
				Scope of Practice.
(1) A duly licensed
				chiropractor may manipulate and adjust the spinal column and other joints of
				the human body and in the process thereof a chiropractor may manipulate the
				muscle and connective tissue related thereto.
(2) As part of a course of chiropractic
				treatment, a duly licensed chiropractor may use all necessary mechanical,
				hygienic, and sanitary measures incident to the care of the body, including,
				but not limited to, air, cold, diet, exercise, heat, light, massage, physical
				culture, rest, ultrasound, water, and physical therapy techniques in the course
				of chiropractic manipulations and/or adjustments.
(3) Other than as explicitly set forth in
				section 10(b) of the Act,
				a duly licensed chiropractor may treat any condition, disease, or injury in any
				patient, including a pregnant woman, and may diagnose, so long as such
				treatment or diagnosis is done in a manner consistent with chiropractic methods
				and techniques and so long as such methods and treatment do not constitute the
				practice of medicine by exceeding the legal scope of chiropractic practice as
				set forth in this section.
(4) A
				chiropractic license issued in the State of California does not authorize the
				holder thereof:
(A) to practice surgery or to
				sever or penetrate tissues of human beings, including, but not limited to
				severing the umbilical cord;
(B) to
				deliver a human child or practice obstetrics;
(C) to practice dentistry;
(D) to practice optometry;
(E) to use any drug or medicine included in
				materia medica;
(F) to use a
				lithotripter;
(G) to use ultrasound
				on a fetus for either diagnostic or treatment purposes; or
(H) to perform a
				mammography.
(5) A duly
				licensed chiropractor may employ the use of vitamins, food supplements, foods
				for special dietary use, or proprietary medicines, if the above substances are
				also included in section
				4057
				of the Business and Professions Code, so long as such substances are not
				included in materia medica as defined in section
				13
				of the Business and Professions Code.
The use of such substances by a licensed chiropractor in the
				  treatment of illness or injury must be within the scope of the practice of
				  chiropractic as defined in section
				  7 of the Act.
(6) Except as specifically provided in
				section 302(a)(4), a duly
				licensed chiropractor may make use of X-ray and thermography equipment for the
				purposes of diagnosis but not for the purposes of treatment. A duly licensed
				chiropractor may make use of diagnostic ultrasound equipment for the purposes
				of neuromuscular skeletal diagnosis.
(7) A duly licensed chiropractor may only
				practice or attempt to practice or hold himself or herself out as practicing a
				system of chiropractic. A duly licensed chiropractor may also advertise the use
				of the modalities authorized by this section as a part of a course of
				chiropractic treatment, but is not required to use all of the diagnostic and
				treatment modalities set forth in this section. A chiropractor may not hold
				himself or herself out as being licensed as anything other than a chiropractor
				or as holding any other healing arts license or as practicing physical therapy
				or use the term "physical therapy" in advertising unless he or she holds
				another such license.