This office has been providing quality health care in our community since 1964. As you may well appreciate, during this time we have been asked by our patients and / or their families to respond or comment upon a wide variety of health matters. By far the two most common questions continue to be:
Q: "Dr. Bailey, what kind of conditions do you treat?"
A: Unfortunately, many people unfamiliar with chiropractic, tend to relate chiropractic care exclusively to the treatment of spinal (back) and joint pain/ problems. While this perception may be true, at least in part, in many ways it falls short in not relating chiropractic care to a wide variety of conditions for which it is clinically effective.
While assuredly not a cure-all, chiropractic care is quite effective in problems which may, to you the patient, on the surface appear distant from the spine; but in reality are directly related to abnormal spinal function. Selected cases of asthma, bed-wetting, headaches (migraine, cluster, common), carpal tunnel syndrome (wrist/hand pain and numbness), dizziness, painful menstruation, arthritis, sports injuries, TMJ pain, chest pain, etc. are just a few examples.
Q: "Dr: Bailey, aren't you only a back doctor?"
A: Yes and no. Let's assume at one time you may have had abdominal pain, and you decided to go to an allopath (M.D.) for treatment. His treatment may have consisted of giving you a pill / drug to swallow by mouth. He was attempting to treat your abdominal complaint by using your mouth as a vehicle. Would that make him a mouth doctor? Of course not.
Perhaps on another occasion you went to an allopath for difficulty in breathing where, after a diagnosis was rendered, you were informed you have asthma. This doctor's treatment may have consisted of injecting a drug/chemical into your arm/muscle. In this case he was attempting to treat your asthmatic condition by using your skin/muscle as a vehicle. Would that make him a skin doctor? Again, of course not.
Using the aforementioned examples, that is precisely what the chiropractic physician does in the treatment of human ailments... only he utilizes a different vehicle... he uses the spinal column / spinal vertebra and nerve.system as that vehicle to influence body function, at times far distant in your body from the location of your current complaint/pain. Does that make the D.C. a back doctor? As you can readily see, the answer to this is yes and no.
Although chiropractic spinal manipulation (spinal adjustment) represents the primary treatment modality in our office, to enhance recovery we also employ the use of chiropractic physiological therapeutics, i.e. ultra sound, diathermy, electrical nerve stimulation, etc. in our treatment regime. In addition, we use nutritional supplementation when indicated.
It is imperative, of course, that before any treatment program is initiated, a diagnosis must be rendered. That diagnosis may be made exclusively in our offices or in conjunction or consultation with other physicians, hospitals and/or laboratories.
So, you see, in conclusion the D.C. is a great deal more than just a "back doctor." We are, in reality, in general practice- the general practice of chiropractic.
