Patient Documents and Information
Patient History Form (link to outside site)
Notice of Information Practices and Privacy Statement (PDF document)
Your first visit with our Doctors includes a thorough examination and evaluation of your current health conditions. This initial visit may take up to an hour, so we ask that you plan accordingly.
Insurance
We are BCBS PPO providers, Medicare and Medicare Advantage Providers. We are out-of-network for all other insurances, meaning you would be responsible for full fees at time of service.
Your insurance benefits will be verified upon presentation of your insurance card. However, we recommend that you call to verify your Chiropractic Benefits prior to your initial visit. You are responsible for any portion of your visit not covered by your insurance, this includes co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles.
Your Initial Appointment
On your appointment day, please bring your completed new patient form, your insurance card and Medicare card if applicable, and your personal identification (i.e.: driver’s license, state identification).
Payment is expected at time of service. We accept personal checks, cash, Visa, Master Card, and Discover along with any insurance benefits. Plan to pay any co-pays or fees not covered by your insurance company.
Consultation
The most important question for our doctors to answer is whether or not you are a candidate for care in our office. Our doctors are interested in trying to completely understand your health condition. You will be asked questions related to how your condition started, what makes your symptoms better or worse, the severity of your symptoms, how long you have had them along with other related aspects of your health condition.
Examination
A physical examination will follow your consultation. This may or may not lead to other diagnostic testing. After ruling out conditions that require an immediate medical referral, our doctors will perform an evaluation of your neuromusculoskeletal system.
Nutrition and Treatment
After your examination your visit will conclude with the appropriate treatment. Our nutritional patients should expect to receive their nutritional testing and then nutritional recommendations at this point in their visit. After your treatment, the doctor will advise a series of visits to help monitor your body as it heals.
What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic doctors practice natural, drugless, non-invasive health care and rely on the body’s ability to self-heal. Sounds ideal, but just how does it work?
We look at the whole picture. Like other health-care providers, we follow a standard routine to gain information about the patient. We consult, review the case history, conduct a physical examination, and we may request laboratory analyses and/or x-rays. Unlike other health-care providers, however, chiropractic physicians also conduct a careful analysis of the patient’s structure and pay particular attention to the spine. We also ask you about your life— Do you eat well? Exercise at all? How do you deal with stress? Do you have children? What do you do for work? And so on.
We seek the origin of the problem. Using this information, a diagnosis is made. Included in the diagnosis is the probable reason for your pain or discomfort. It is important to note that chiropractors seek the origin of the illness in order to eliminate it-we do not simply treat the symptoms. If your roof is leaking, do you simply catch the drips in a bucket for years on end, or do you repair the roof to prevent it from leaking? Similarly, if the migraine headache you’ve had all week is being caused by misaligned vertebra and an irritated nerve, do you continue to take pain killers indefinitely, or do you realign the vertebra to prevent the pain? You get the picture.
We fix the origin of the problem. Chiropractors have a term for misalignments: subluxations. A vertebral subluxation is a misalignment of the bones that protect the spinal cord. It’s a leak in the roof. Or a kink in the wiring of your nervous system. The severity of the subluxation can vary, and there are a number of potential contributing factors that can be physical, emotional, mental, or chemical. The subluxation can be caused by any number of incidents, from birth trauma to an auto accident to simple repetition or over-use.
What is an Adjustment?
What truly differentiates doctors of chiropractic from any other healthcare professionals is the fact that chiropractors are the only professionals who are trained to diagnose and treat what are called spinal subluxations. The word “subluxation” comes from the Latin words meaning "somewhat or slight" (sub) and "to dislocate" (luxare). So the term ‘vertebral subluxation’ literally means a slight dislocation or misalignment of the bones in the spine.
When a subluxation occurs, a chiropractor can correct the misaligned bone and allow it to return to its proper position. This procedure is appropriately called an adjustment, and the adjustment enables the body to heal. The chiropractic adjustment is a quick thrust applied to a vertebra for the purpose of correcting its position, movement or both. Adjustments are often accompanied by an audible release of gas that sounds like a “crack.” The sound sometimes shocks people a little bit the first couple times they get adjusted, but the sensation is usually relieving. Occasionally, minor discomfort is experienced, especially if the surrounding muscles are in spasm or the patient tenses up during the chiropractic procedure. There are times when the audible “cracking” does not occur. This is often due to either significant muscle tightness or that the patient may be having a hard time relaxing during their adjustments. However, the chiropractic adjustment is still important. The leak is fixed. The wiring is fixed. Information is flowing again. To keep the wiring fixed and the information flowing, several adjustments over a course of time may be necessary, in addition to massage, physical therapy, stretching exercises, or strengthening exercises. In the chiropractic world, keeping the problem fixed and preventing its reoccurrence is just as important as the initial remedy.
There are actually five components that contribute to the vertebral subluxation complex (VSC). Learn More.
- Bone Component-where the vertebra is either out of position, not moving properly, or are undergoing degeneration. This frequently leads to a narrowing of the spaces between the bones through which the nerves pass; often resulting in irritation or impingement of the nerve itself.
- Nervous Component-is the disruption of the normal flow of energy along the nerve fibers, causing the messages traveling along the nerves to become distorted. The result is that all of the tissues that are fed by those nerves receive distorted signals from the brain and, consequently, are not able to function normally. Over time, this can lead to a whole host of conditions, such as peptic ulcers, constipation and other organ system dysfunction.
- Muscular Component-since nerves control the muscles that help hold the vertebrae in place, muscles have to be considered to be an integral part of the vertebral subluxation complex. In fact, muscles both affect, and are affected by the VSC. A subluxation can irritate a nerve, the irritated nerve can cause a muscle to spasm, the spasmed muscle pulls the attached vertebrae further out of place, which then further irritates the nerve and you have a vicious cycle. It is no wonder that very few subluxations just go away by themselves.
- Soft Tissue Component-the VSC will also affect the surrounding tendons, ligaments, blood supply, and other tissues as the misaligned vertebrae tug and squeeze the connective tissue with tremendous force. Over time, the soft tissues can become stretched out or scarred, leaving the spine with either a permanent instability or restriction.
- Chemical Component-is the change in the chemistry of the body due to the VSC. Most often, the chemical changes, such as the release of a class of chemicals called “kinins,” are pro-inflammatory; meaning that they increase inflammation in the affected area.
These changes get progressively worse over time if they are not treated correctly, leading to chronic pain, inflammation, arthritis, muscle trigger points, the formation of bone spurs, loss of movement, as well as muscle weakness and spasm. Chiropractors have known the dangers of the vertebral subluxation complex ever since the birth of the profession. More and more scientific research is demonstrating the tremendous detrimental impact that subluxation have on the tissue of the body. In order to be truly healthy, it is vital that your nervous system be functioning free of interference from subluxations. Chiropractors are the only health professionals trained in the detection, location, and correction of the vertebral subluxation complex through chiropractic care.
Applied Kinesiology
Applied Kinesiology (AK), developed by Dr. George Goodheart in 1964, uses bioenergetic feedback through testing the strength of various muscles in the body. This highly individualized, in-depth sytem of analysis, allows the doctor to assess various aspects of a patient’s state of health by evaluating and treating postural and muscular imbalances, neurovascular and neurolymphatic points, subluxation, cranial-sacral movement, acupuncture meridians and nutritional status. This is a highly effective treatment system which focuses on whole body care.
AK allows the skilled health practitioner to evaluate functional illness, which typically precedes disease. This highly individualized, in-depth sytem of analysis, allows the doctor to assess various aspects of a patient’s state of health by evaluating and treating postural and muscular imbalances, neurovascular and neurolymphatic points, subluxation, cranial-sacral movement, acupuncture meridians and nutritional status. This is a highly effective treatment system which focuses on whole body care. AK enables health investigation without intrusion. AK gives insight into the underlying causes and solutions to many functional health problems.
One of the biggest benefits of AK is it gives us a tool for discernment!
Lifestyle and Wellness Tips
- Decide. Make the decision that you are willingly choosing to invest in yourself, because it is in your best interest to do so, and also because it is in the best interest of everyone you know for you to be at your best.
- Understand. Understand what wellness is and what it looks and feels like. Be a student of being well. Continue`reading and learning as much as you can about how the choices you make and the things you think affect your well-being. Be mindful that wellness is a process or a journey, not an event or destination.
- Know Your Body. Reveal the mystery of sickness and health by knowing the parts of your body, what they are supposed to do for you and what happens when your body isn’t working properly. You are genetically preprogrammed to self-heal and to thrive. Gain the selfconfidence to know that healing is an inside job.
- Get Aligned. The best-kept secret in wellness is the importance of keeping your main frame in alignment.Your skeleton is made up of your spine and extremities, which all have joints which attach bones together and allow for proper movement. When those joints get subluxated or fixated it has devastating effects on your structural and neurological health.
- Move It. Exercise is one of the best prescriptions to stay healthy and well. Your body requires motion, resistance, stretching and oxygen to stay strong and flexible. Invest in your future by keeping fit.
- Eat Well. The foods you consume are filled with chemicals that either help or hurt you. Look through your refrigerator and cabinets and start looking at what is in the foods you are putting into your body. Food is supposed to be the nourishment and fuel to keep you going and the building blocks to support growth of new and health cells. Take a daily supplement for overall health and wellbeing.
- Relax and Breathe. Everyone needs time to let the body and mind rest and rejuvenate. Whether you like to meditate, pray, listen to nature or inspiring music, shut down and open up.
- Build Your Wellness Team. Put together your all-star roster of superstar wellness providers with whom you are excited to work. Being excited and inspired by a team of experts will keep you safe and keep you engaged in bringing out your best.
- Create Your Routine. For wellness to work in the long run it has to become routine. You want to schedule your needs first so that you know you are taking care of what’s most important: You. Take the time to figure out how you can make wellness fit into your lifestyle. If you don’t schedule it, it will likely not happen. Life gets busy very quickly and soon everyone else’s needs are more important than your own. Make sure you know that you are making the time to exercise, eat well, relax and see your wellness team on a routine basis.
- Enjoy It. Discovering wellness may seem like a lot of work to do, but not doing so isn’t an option for people who want to reduce their risk of health problems and increase their chances for success. The fact is, though, that you receive the most benefit from being perfectly healthy and achieving success when you can enjoy it.
Use these lifestyle and wellness tips to create the richness you deserve in your life.