Our Role in Your Healthy Life

Your neck consists of seven vertebrae, and your spinal cord and many major nerve roots pass through these vertebrae. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, and discs also help to support your head and work with your vertebrae to allow head, neck, and shoulder movement. 

If you are experiencing neck pain, we will look for improper functioning that leads to subluxation. Simply put, subluxation means that one or more vertebral levels are not functioning correctly, leading to irritation, pain, headache, and other issues. 

To treat these issues, we will find the specific area causing you pain and explain why this pain is happening, and what we can do about it. Dr. Routley will suggest new habits to avoid a recurrence of this issue. These may include an exercise program should your pain diminish, and health improve.

Patients often see us with pain in their shoulder, arm, or leg, but are unsure of why this pain started. This pain of unknown origin may be chronic or fleeting depending on the body’s position. You may have pain that begins when you try to go to sleep at night. 

These pains may be coming directly from a tissue or joint problem. However, they may also be a result of neck or low back problems (arm pain and leg pain, respectively). During your examination, Dr. Routley will look for sensitive areas in your neck or back for subluxation: one or more vertebral levels is not working correctly and is causing irritation or preventing proper nerve function. It is this nerve issue that may be expressing pain in your arm or leg. 

Through our evaluation, we will find the root of the problem and correct it. Once there is an improvement, we will provide a home therapy program to help strengthen your neck or back, which will continue to decrease any remaining arm or leg pain.

This was once thought of as only spinal curvature, but we now know that there are many other factors to this condition. If all of the components are not addressed, treatment is ineffective. The degree of correction depends on how severe the disease is, how old the patient is, and how compliant the patient is with treatment. 

Women are more affected by scoliosis than men are. Usually, it is discovered in adolescents through physicals and tends to run in families (though it is not evident in all generations). Common screenings for scoliosis view the patient from the back and look for a high shoulder or high hip (both may be present). Then, with the patient bending forward at the waist, the examiner will look for a “rib hump,” which is when the ribs on one side are higher than the ribs on the other. If these signs are noted, a scoliosis diagnosis is likely. 

However, chiropractic uses a hands-on screening method to check for equal motion/movement of the spine and rib cage. If motion is not equal, a standing X-ray may be ordered to fully evaluate the patient. 

Dr. Routley was board-certified in scoliosis through the International Scoliosis Research Center and can help properly diagnose this condition. We will determine the course of progression and identify the steps needed to see correction. The earlier the treatment begins and the closer the treatment is followed, the better and faster the correction occurs.

Chiropractic care has proven to be a responsive treatment for…