The times are naturally changing. A shift is taking place in the direction of wellness, as opposed to just symptomatic relief. Most people are realizing that wellness is found not just in the contents of a pill or the end of a syringe. This philosophy has been pushed on people for years by the pharmaceutical companies interested more in their bottom lines than actual well-being. The majority of my patients firmly believe that to achieve true wellness, they must integrate a blend a philosophies into their lives or continue to move in a vicious cycle of pain and frustration.

Our office has changed to an integrative center for one main reason: We were tired of just being considered and compared to other chiropractors in town who were content with only spinal adjustments. This is a great way to practice, but it is not good enough for us. Our center allows us to treat many painful conditions with a great combination of Eastern and Western philosophies and by infusing state-of-the-art technology such as cold laser therapy and spinal decompression therapy using the decompression system by Dynatronics Corp, Salt Lake City. There are many decompression tables out there, with some ranging in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Dynatronics table offered the best in function and price to integrate decompression therapy instantly in our center, as well as to give us the option to also use cold laser therapy.

Cash Patients

Our center is a highly individualized practice with a significant emphasis on maintaining one-on-one care as much as possible without turning it into a high-volume center. The treatment plans are not out of a “cookbook” of care, although many treatment procedures are similar among patients. The individual care allows for greater success rates and higher compliance rates when it comes to treatment protocols as well as paying for services.

Since our integration of spinal decompression and cold laser therapy, many patients have converted from insurance to cash, as more people are willing to pay up front for services not covered by insurance. We do allow the filing of insurance for therapies that are covered, but the patient is still responsible for noncovered services. However, the majority of our clients understand that our office is different from the average physician’s office. Our technology and holistic philosophy differentiate us vastly from our competitors. Larger integrative centers in our area rely heavily on wellness through other means, but our use of those means with technology attracts the more informed client who is interested in wellness though Eastern and Western philosophy.

Three Phases of Treatment

The Dynatronics decompression therapy requires three phases of treatment as prescribed by the company. Our office has expanded on the phases to offer a complete treatment protocol. Phase 1 consists of neuromuscular therapy, acupressure, deep-tissue massage, the art of cupping, and myo-fascial release to relax and de-stress the body. This ensures that the patient is at a maximum comfort and relaxation mode prior to a more aggressive decompression therapy. Phase 2 consists of decompression therapy for 15 to 20 minutes, targeting the exact disk involved by setting the specific angle required for that level. Different protocols for exact pull exist depending on various factors, including the size of the hernation/ bulge and the level of degeneration. There is truly no “cookbook” to this, even though some companies claim that there is. You have to treat the person at hand, not the symptoms based on a book. Phase 3 consists of physical therapy modalities for symptom relief, as well as cold laser therapy, which accelerates the healing at the cellular level of the disk that’s involved. This means an increase in the microcirculation of the disk and an increase in the metabolism and immune response to the region.

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The success rate of decompression therapy is considered to be around 86%, but that rate is clearly higher at our center, with the inclusion of cold laser therapy as well as the above-described manual therapies. The compliance at our center is always high, as more patients are satisfied with the combination of therapy and are content with the individualized care given.

Vishal Verma, DC, practices in Fairfax, Va. Contact him at .