CHIROPRACTIC CARE
Making an accurate diagnosis of your condition is a critical step to ensure you receive the most time- and cost-effective therapy possible. Our Doctors of Chiropractic take the time to discuss your health concerns and perform a thorough physical examination. Diagnostic imaging such as X-Rays can be requisitioned if required, which are covered under your MSI. They then provide a detailed diagnosis of the condition and discuss the best course of action for treatment. However, treating the condition doesn't complete the entire picture.
The goal of treatment at Active Approach Health & Wellness Centre is to not only resolve the symptoms of your condition, but to also help you make the necessary changes to help prevent future re-occurrence of the problem. Sometimes this requires very minor modifications, while other times it can be more of an in-depth process. However, by examining the various factors in your life that may have contributed to the injury helps you take control of your well-being and promoting an injury-free, active lifestyle.
THERAPEUTIC OPTIONS
Interferential Current / Muscle Stimulation
Helping reduce pain and inflammation by adding a low-voltage current to the involved tissue has been a therapeutic modality used for many years, and still proves to be very effective, whether dealing with acute injury or chronic pain. The current helps to reduce local inflammation and reduce pain by numbing your pain-transmitting nerve fibers, ultimately providing symptomatic relief and allowing better tolerance to manual therapy.
Joint Manipulation/Mobilization:
Whether it be joints of the low back, neck, pelvis, hands, elbow or feet, manipulation and/or mobilization helps to restore proper range of motion, decrease pain, and achieve proper function. Joint manipulation is commonly referred to as a chiropractic adjustment. They are performed as a gentle manual maneuver that takes the joint into it's normal physiological range of motion, and as a result, a light 'popping' sound is sometimes heard, as if you were cracking your knuckles. This sound is normal, and is simply a sound made by the joint's lubricating fluid as the joint reaches it's maximal range of motion. Chiropractic adjustments are very safe, and through our thorough history and physical assessment, we determine whether joint manipulation is an appropriate component of your therapy.
Gait Analysis / Foot Biomechanical Analysis:
The feet and ankles are the body's primary anatomical supports when standing, walking, or running, and are very susceptible to injury due to biomechanical dysfunction and/or simple wear-and-tear. For that reason, it is essential to assess the feet when dealing with any injury to the body, as they may be a significant contributing factor to the pain. No two bodies are alike, and nobody is perfectly symmetrical from side to side. Therefore, it is more than just a matter of alignment.
Assessing how you walk and how your feet, ankles, knees, hips and pelvis function in an active state is critical to determining any biomechanical factors in your injury and to prevent that injury from re-occurring. Corrective options could be ask simple as a heel lift of a few millimeters to correct a difference the length of one leg compared to the other, or a more personalized solution using custom-made foot orthotics to help prevent over-pronation (the movement of the ankle when the foot is planted while walking) or other biomechanical dysfunctions.
Active Care Program:
In addition to getting the proper treatment, taking the necessary steps at home or at work to further help the healing process is critical. Whether it be as simple as a few minutes of stretching a day, to icing the injury, to making minor modifications to your work area, everyone has a unique living and working situation outside of our clinic and should have a customized treatment plan that takes these factors into consideration. The combination of thorough treatment and a personalized active care regimen maximizes the therapeutic benefit and rate of recovery from your condition.
Soft-Tissue Therapy
Regardless of the source of your condition, when pain is experienced, surrounding musculature and other soft-tissues often respond with spasm, tightness, or trigger points (tender areas in muscle). Various soft-tissue treatment techniques, such as cross-friction massage, trigger-point therapy, and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching can help alleviate the associated pain and soreness. Contrary to popular belief, Chiropractic care is not solely limited to treating the joints of the body!
Therapeutic Ultrasound
Ultrasound is another routinely used therapeutic device that transmits sound-waves into the tissue, either creating a thermal effect of the tissue from the absorption of the sound waves, or a mechanical stimulation effect from the vibration of the sound waves. Based on the condition being treated and the desired ultrasound setting, treatment results and rates can be greatly improved.
OUR SCOPE OF PRACTICE
*All conditions are unique to the individual and are diagnosed based on your specific findings. Not all of the above are necessarily treatable at Active Approach Health & Wellness Centre and may warrant external referral for appropriate therapy. Our scope of practice is also not limited to solely the above conditions.
