It is important to make sure your chiropractor is a graduate of an accredited chiropractic institution.

Chiropractic is an internationally recognized profession with a single high standard of education. This level of training is upheld by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its monograph, "WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Chiropractic".

In countries where there is registration of the profession, the titles chiropractor, chiropractic physician or doctor of chiropractic all indicate that a person is the holder of a chiropractic degree from an accredited, professional degree-granting programme in a tertiary or post-tertiary institution. This course would be a minimum of 5 +1 years of university in the Oxford educational system, or 4 +1 years of graduate professional school, after university, in the North American system, of similar scope and duration as a basic medical or dental degree.

Often, in unregulated jurisdictions, especially when traditional-practice bone-setting is translated into English, people who do not have Chiropractic training use the words chiropractor or chiropractic as a generic term describing the joint manipulation or even massage that they provide. Because of this "training gap" the difference in the level of ability in differential diagnosis between these groups can be substantial, and often, knowing when not to initiate a course of treatment is more important than knowing how to manipulate a joint.

The Chiropractic profession has its own independent body to certify training programmes as meeting the world standard, the Council of Chiropractic Education - International (CCE-I). See http://www.cceintl.org

Persons wishing to undertake chiropractic training should also be aware that in Asia there are unscrupulous entrepreneurs who run short, sub-standard, unaccredited courses for a quick profit, that will leave them ill-prepared to provide safe care to the public. It is important for prospective students to seek out CCE-I programmes.