Chiropractic: Overview

Whether you are a weekend warrior or a professional athlete, a busy professional or work at home, all the physical and postural stress (and other little stresses in your life) can add up. Over time this can wear your body down, manifesting with pain, discomfort, or other symptoms. Rather than ignoring, masking or chasing the symptoms, consider visiting Downsview Chiropractic for a conservative, holistic approach.

Our clinic offers a wide variety of services, including help for back pain, headaches and neck pain, help restoring function and return to daily activities, and help maintaining and improving overall health.

Living with pain and discomfort can affect every area of your life. We deliver hands-on care in areas such as your spine, pelvis, hips, shoulders, and more.

Our treatment options address:

• Low back pain
• Sciatica
• Neck pain relief
• Upper back pain relief
• Pregnancy
• Sprain and strain
• General injury or pain

Even if you are not currently in pain, chiropractic care can help maintain wellness and balance in your life. Working to avoid injury in the future will help you continue your active lifestyle.

At Downsview Chiropractic we take a holistic approach, including chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic exercise, lifestyle counseling, and injury prevention strategies.

From your very first visit, we will begin working with you to create a strategy that is unique to your situation. We understand that everyone is different, and everyone has specific needs when it comes to health care, so we will take the time to review your history, lifestyle, activities, and current conditions to design a personalized plan for you.

Downsview Chiropractic is not just another health care provider. We are your partner in care, educating you about your options to help you make the best choices for your specific situation. We can make recommendations based on what we discover about your health and history, knowing that your goals are unique to you.

Nothing is more important than maintaining a healthy, high quality life. Call us today to discover a better, healthier you.

Chiropractic: What to Expect

Each of your visits to Downsview Chiropractic is about you. That’s called patient-centered healthcare. In fact… you have been important to us since we opened our doors in 1985. The first step in helping you reach your goals is getting to know you a bit better. Are you having any problems with your health? How are the things that you like to do being affected? If you have had any related x-rays or other specialized tests or consultations performed elsewhere, it is a good idea to bring a copy with you.

The First Visit

When you arrive for your first appointment you will be greeted, offered details of the clinic, and asked to complete a questionnaire about your health. While we certainly know that every case is unique, we find people typically set aside an additional 30 minutes after completing their paperwork for their consultation and examination with the doctor.

After being introduced to the doctor for the first time, you will be asked a number of questions about your current health or condition, your personal or family health history, and your lifestyle – including daily activities, work routine, stress levels or exercise. The answers you give are used to help guide your care plan and recommendations.

Based on your answers you may be asked to perform some tests for your physical exam. Many may be familiar to you, such as a check of your blood pressure, reflexes or strength. Some may seem very simple, such as observing your posture, movements or walking. Some may be unfamiliar to you, such as a hands-on evaluation of how well your spine moves, identifying areas of restriction or improper motion, or specialized tests in an area of concern.

The Next Visit

We work hard to educate our patients about their care, and to inspire them to take a proactive role in their own health. Our patients participate in an informed consent discussion before any treatment is given. Regardless of a person's health goals, they will be given choices. We pride ourselves in offering customized patient care plans to suit individual needs.

The Partnership of Care

A Chiropractic adjustment is a treatment which uses hands to apply a very quick, precise, and safe amount of pressure directly on the affected area of your spine or other specific joint. This pressure momentarily moves the joints. Adjustments are performed to relieve the pressure on the joint, surrounding nerves and muscles, and most importantly, restores normal mobility.

Depending on your goals, the diagnosis, your age, physical condition, how long you have had the current complaint, and previous injuries, several visits over a relatively short period of time, or a longer, more complex period of care may be necessary. Whether you are recovering from an injury or working to prevent one, recommendations may also include changes to posture or lifestyle, or suggested stretches and exercises.

Chiropractic is affordable and high quality health care that gets you back to your daily activities quickly and efficiently. When compared to other joint, muscle and back treatments, chiropractic has been proven time and again to be cost effective. Many private and workplace insurance plans cover the cost of chiropractic treatment.

Chiropractic: Conditions Treated

There are five ways our patients use chiropractic care:

• Relief Care for the most obvious symptoms,
• Corrective Care for their underlying problem,
• Maintenance Care to sustain their progress,
• Preventive Care to catch new problems early, and
• Wellness Care to be all that they can be.

Many patients of all ages seek chiropractic for wellness care. Others find that chiropractic helps to maintain mobility and good range of motion. Work, accidents, sports injuries, household chores, even the stress of daily living can cause painful joint and spinal problems. Even if you do not have painful symptoms, chiropractic care can help you maintain healthy spine and joint function.

Here are some of the most common reasons people turn to us for help, so that they can get back to doing the things they want to do.

Low Back Pain or Sciatica

Back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor's office, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections. For many people, the pain can keep them away from work, school or even their day-to-day activities. Maybe it was an injury or you overdid it, maybe it was posture, just reaching for something, or you are not sure how you ended up this way. In our experience, there is often no need to ‘deal with it’ and wait for the pain to cause interruptions in the activities of your daily life.

Neck or Upper Back Pain

More than six out of ten people will experience neck pain at some point in their lives, and one-fifth of Canadians suffer neck pains at any given time. That’s a whole lot, so you are certainly not alone. We know that the pain can run from nagging to outright disruptive. It may even come with a headache. Sports, falls, and accidents are some of the most obvious culprits. In our experience, lifestyle issues like your posture driving, at work, at home, or even texting often play a role. We have helped many people get back to their activities of daily living, and stay that way, when their pain was related to the joints, discs, muscles and nerves.

Pregnancy

There are few things in life that put more stress on your spine than pregnancy. Your spine must adapt to posture and weight changes with each passing month. Many women have come to accept that back pain accompanies pregnancy, but that is not always the case. Some women may even find their labour to be more comfortable after having received chiropractic care during pregnancy. Our clinic has been helping expectant mothers through their pregnancies for more than two decades. We are able to adapt our techniques and equipment to help make you comfortable no matter your stage of pregnancy.

Sprain and Strain Injuries

Have you ever lifted something too heavy? Shoveled too much? Have you ever spent too long on the computer? The golf course? Working labour, or focusing on a hobby? There is so much we do in a day that can overwhelm the ligaments and muscles of our joint. Sometimes it happens quickly. Often it develops over time. Whether it’s an acute injury or repetitive strain, leave it too long and symptoms of numbness, burning, tingling, swelling or aching are likely to show. Any longer than that and you may have to avoid the activity more than you care to. Chiropractic techniques that work so well with the spine can be applied to other areas of the body. With a conservative approach, we have helped many people restore and maintain healthy function to the joints, muscles and ligaments so you don’t miss the things you like to do.

General Health and Wellbeing

The function of the spine, joints, muscles and nerves, is central to chiropractic’s approach to health and well being. The stress and strains of everyday living such as deskwork, poor posture, being sedentary, or even sleeping on the couch can cause spinal problems. So may falls, accidents (especially car accidents), sports, gardening, or even learning to walk. Like a tooth cavity or heart disease, many people have a problem long before they notice any symptoms. Turns out, true health is about how our bodies function not how we feel. Doesn’t it make sense to get the little problems checked while they are still little? Eat right, exercise, get lots of sleep, drink plenty of fluids… and get a chiropractor to check your spine.

Chiropractic: Partnership of Care

We work hard to educate our patients about their care, and to inspire them to take a proactive role in their own health. You and your chiropractor have an equal and vital role in the pursuit of your optimal health and well-being.

You have the right to expect your chiropractor to provide…

• ethical conduct of practice
• respectful, honest and clear communication in all aspects of care
• relevant, safe and supportive patient-centred care
• accurate and comprehensive records
• an awareness of current health and well-being issues
• information about what chiropractic offers
• timely and necessary communication and/or referral to other health professionals
• timely transfer of records, when appropriate
• compliance with the College of Chiropractors of Ontario’s regulations, standards of practice, policies and guidelines
• privacy and confidentiality
• behaviour and clarity regarding dignified professional boundaries
• disclosure of real or perceived conflicts of interest
• a process for declining treatment and withdrawal of consent at any time
• full disclosure of policies, procedures and fees

Your responsibilities to your chiropractor are to provide…

• honest, accurate and full disclosure of all pertinent health information
• constructive feedback (positive/negative) regarding all aspects of care
• a cooperative commitment to your treatment plan
• compliance with office policies, procedures and fees
• courtesy and respect for the office environment, staff and other patients
• up-to-date contact information

Downsview Chiropractic. Your Partner for Hands on Health, since 1985.

Chiropractic: Our Technology

Hands-on Healthcare

In our office we use manual techniques to help you with your health goals.

An adjustment is a highly skilled, non-invasive, hands-on procedure. It utilizes the specialized skills developed through four years of intensive chiropractic education, and is at the heart of modern chiropractic care. The very word “chiropractic” is a blending of the Greek words cheir (hand) and praxis (action), meaning "done by hand." Highly refined, low tech, eco-friendly — a hands-on approach to healthcare is why many people choose to visit a Chiropractor in the first place. We feel it’s just as important as they do.

Thompson Adjusting Tables

In our office we use Zenith 440 Thompson tables.

These tables gently lower you in to position for your ease and comfort. The table can be configured to accommodate people of all shapes and sizes - tall, shorter, even pregnant! Acclaimed as one of the major innovations in chiropractic health care, these type of tables allow for a gentle delivery of your adjustment by using gravity based motion to assist your chiropractor.

Activator Methods

In our office we use Activator adjusting instruments.

The Activator Method is one of the most widely-researched chiropractic techniques. The Activator is a small, hand-held instrument. The activator allows for comfortable delivery of your adjustment by providing a controlled, measured, fast impulse to assist your chiropractor.

Chiropractic: Corporate Programs

Downsview Chiropractic's Corporate Program aims to help you with your corporate or community-group health and safety needs, including:

• To provide support for health & safety awareness at your company
• To provide ways to help reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and return employees to work faster following a work-related injury
• To provide a value-added service to your employees.

The Corporate Program offers workshops, wellness fairs and private clinical services. Ask how we can customize a program to your needs.