Spinal Decompression in Salt Lake City

Is your pain the kind decompression is built for?

Start here. It decides everything else.

Decompression is aimed at a specific problem: a spinal disc that's irritated, bulging or herniated, and a nerve root getting crowded by it. It isn't built for every sore back. Pain coming from the small facet joints, the sacroiliac joint or a strained muscle is a different problem, and a table that gently draws the spine apart won't do much about it.

So what does disc pain tend to look like? Mecham Chiropractic watches for a handful of patterns that point toward a disc:

• It's worse after sitting, and the drive home is the worst part of the day.
• Pain runs past the knee.
• Bending forward, or getting up out of a chair, sets it off.
• It calms down for a few weeks, then flares again — over and over.

None of those prove a disc is to blame. Plenty of people with a bulge on an MRI feel fine: a 2015 review in the American Journal of Neuroradiology found disc bulges on the scans of 30% of pain-free 20-year-olds and 84% of pain-free 80-year-olds. That's why the exam comes before the table, not after. Diagnosis-specific details live on herniated disc treatment and sciatica and pinched nerve treatment.

What actually happens on the DRX9000

You lie on the table. A harness goes around your pelvis for the low back, the table is set for the spinal level your exam pointed to, and then a computer runs the session.

Here's the detail that matters. The DRX9000 doesn't simply pull and hold. It ramps the tension up, eases it back, and repeats that cycle for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Why go to that trouble? A steady pull makes the muscles along your spine brace against it. That's a reflex, not a choice, and a braced muscle soaks up the force long before it reaches the disc you're trying to unload.

The FDA cleared the DRX9000 in 2006 as powered traction equipment. Cleared — not approved — and the gap between those two words is bigger than most clinic websites let on. We unpack it on our DRX9000 page, and walk through a session start to finish in what to expect from spinal decompression.

Conditions we use it for

Mecham Chiropractic uses decompression for a short list of problems, and only when the exam backs it up. Each page below covers what the condition is, how it tends to feel, what the research says for that condition in particular, and when you should skip the table entirely and see a surgeon or an emergency room instead.

The honest part: what the research shows

We'd rather you hear this from us than stumble on it later.

The strongest evidence on traction for low back pain isn't flattering. In 2013, a Cochrane review by Wegner and colleagues pooled 32 randomized trials covering 2,762 people and concluded that traction, alone or added to other care, made little or no difference to pain, function or getting back to work — with or without sciatica.

On the other side sits a 2010 study by Christian Apfel's team. Thirty people finished a 6-week course on the DRX9000; their average back pain dropped from 6.2 to 1.6 out of 10, and disc height on CT scans rose from 7.5 to 8.8 millimeters.

Sounds like a win. Look closer, though. There was no control group, the work was run on behalf of Axiom Worldwide — the company that made the DRX9000 at the time — and herniated discs often shrink by themselves: a 2020 analysis of 38 studies found herniations regressed in 63% of people treated without surgery. An uncontrolled study can't tell you whether the table did the work or the calendar did.

Where does that leave you? With a treatment that may help some people whose pain really is disc-driven, and that hasn't proven it helps most. That's precisely why Mecham Chiropractic builds in a checkpoint: no meaningful change within the first 8 to 12 treatments, and the plan gets reconsidered rather than extended. The study-by-study version is on does spinal decompression work?

And if anyone tells you decompression isn't the same thing as traction, we took that claim apart in traction vs. spinal decompression.

Cost and insurance in Utah

Plan on paying for this yourself.

Medicare hasn't covered vertebral axial decompression since 1997. Aetna's policy, last reviewed in March 2026, calls it experimental, investigational or unproven, and University of Utah Health Plans lists it as investigational for both its commercial and Medicaid plans.

What does it cost, then? We don't have a local average we'd stake our name on. The number you'll see quoted most comes from a November 2020 FairWarning investigation, which put a full course of DRX9000 sessions at about $3,500. Prices swing with the clinic and with how many sessions a case needs — so the sharper question isn't "how much per session?" but "what happens if this isn't working by session six?"

Both topics get the full treatment on spinal decompression cost in Salt Lake City and whether insurance covers spinal decompression in Utah.

Who shouldn't have decompression

Some backs shouldn't go on the table at all. Mecham Chiropractic screens out anyone with a spinal fracture or instability, fusion hardware such as screws, rods or cages, active cancer affecting the spine, osteoporosis past a safe threshold, an aortic aneurysm, or a pregnancy.

If you aren't a good candidate, you'll be told at the exam. You'll also hear what makes more sense for you instead.

Getting here from around the valley

The clinic is at 4700 South 900 East #16, in the Ivy Place center on the west side of 900 East at Van Winkle. That stretch of 900 East is the Murray–Millcreek line — which is why the mailing address says Millcreek even though the building sits on the Murray side.

From downtown Salt Lake City it's about 7.7 miles, most of it straight down 700 East. Holladay is closer, about 2.9 miles.

Coming from Sandy? Roughly 8.2 miles, following 700 East north as it becomes 900 East. On I-15, the 4500 South exit is exit 301; head east from there.

The town pages below have directions from each city hall, plus a little about each place.

What patients say about the table

These are copied word for word from Google, and they describe Mecham Chiropractic as a whole.

Only a few of the clinic's reviews name decompression itself, so the list is short. Padding it with quotes about something else would tell you nothing.

How to start

Three steps. The first one is a phone call.

1. Call or book online. Reach the clinic at (801) 590-8615, or use the scheduling form.
2. Get examined. A health history, an orthopedic exam and a look at any imaging that matters for your case.
3. Get a plan with a checkpoint. If decompression fits, you'll know roughly how many sessions to expect and what should be different by treatments 8 to 12.

And if it doesn't fit? You'll hear that first. We think that's worth more than a pitch for a package.

Want to know who's behind these pages before you call? Here's who runs this site, and why it's separate from the clinic's main website.