knows what he's going to do with them. He's been doing it for 20+ years. If the one you went to has been doing it for a long time it probably doesn't take them long to decide what treatment path they're going to get you into.
Having lower back issues myself, I'm not a big fan of chiro's. When I'm at my most miserable I figure if I can get even 10-15% pain relief it will be worth it. Or if it can cut one or two days off of recovery time. But I never feel like they just make the problem go away. It helps sometimes, but not enough to make me think that they're even close to having all of the answers.
It comes down to there being physiological wear and tear. They're not going to make that go away.