We also provide limited nutritional, lifestyle and health counselling where needed.

We provide clinical gowns and shorts for your examination, or you can wear your own loose fitting clothing. 

You will always have the choice to accept or decline any examination or treatment procedure. We can only recommend what we think will work based on the exam finding. It is up to you, the patient, to choose the path right for you.

Patient comfort is a high priority. Treatment pain or discomfort is seldom necessary. We ask you to keep us informed of your response to treatment so we can make changes as needed to improve your comfort.

The simple answer is NO. You are free to choose your own care. We do not sell pre-paid treatment plans or require you to commit to prolonged care. Our goal is to resolve the pain and help you learn how to keep it away.

Treatment is usually broken into a few different stages.

• Acute care – more frequent initial treatments and exercises designed to get you out of pain – may last a few weeks.

• Rehabilitative care – a reduced treatment frequency as the problem is healing and exercises are starting to help stabilize the area.

• Supportive or Maintenance care – infrequent care to help keep the problems from returning.

Ideally we can find the right combination of exercises and strategies to help you avoid re-aggravating the problem, minimizing the need for ongoing treatments; but not everyone is able to do all their exercises or avoid all aggravating factors. For some patients infrequent treatments are an effective way to keep recurrent or chronic problems at bay.

You are free to choose you own care. Regular treatments, supportive care for a recurrent complaint or acute care for an injury. We can suggest options based on our clinical experience, but it is up to you as the patient to decide how to manage your own health.

Everything is very individualized and there are many factors that will effect your response to treatment. A good ball park for a simple problem is at least 50% improvement within 2 weeks of consistent treatment. Response may take longer for more complex issues.

No. While we see many patients in the clinic who are referred from their Medical Doctors, a referral is not necessary. Similar to a Dentist, Chiropractors are primary health care providers, able to evaluate and diagnose issues on their own.

That's a bit of a loaded question! The simple answer is yes. Multiple research studies have shown the different treatment modalities Chiropractors use as safe and effective help for muscle, joint and nerve problems.

Everyone has heard stories about Chiropractic manipulations causing injury, but the most recent and best available evidence tells us the vast majority of “Chiropractic side effects” are minor soreness or stiffness related to hands on treatments. Those severe stories are likely problems that started before ever seeing the Chiropractor and were likely progressing on their own.

No, our goal is to always have people leaving the clinic feeling better than they did on the way in.  That said, in some cases, because the area in need of treatment may be quite tender there can be some discomfort in treating the area.  We can adjust the intensity of treatment to minimize any discomfort, but sometimes that equates with slower results.  The goal is to find a balance and provide treatment with minimal discomfort and maximum results.

Professional Chiropractors take seven years of post secondary education. This includes an undergraduate degree followed by four years of Chiropractic College, with 4,300 hours of contact time and 1,500 clinic hours. A Chiropractic degree is comparable to Dentistry.

Most often yes. The majority of private health plans offer coverage for Chiropractic care similar to Dental coverage. Chiropractic care is not covered by provincial health insurance in Nova Scotia. We encourage our patients to contact their insurance provider to determine what level of coverage they have available. We are able to directly bill most private plans, meaning you would only need to cover any difference in cost.

Traditional Chiropractic was based on the idea that treating the spine could affect all the nerves and in-turn affect many different internal organs and diseases.  While there have been some interesting anecdotal reports about these different treatments they do not stand up to the challenge of scientific scrutiny.

To quote Carl Sagan "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", and we don't see adequate evidence to promote those treatments.

Our goal at Bedford Chiropractic is to provide sound evidence based treatments, and our focus is on the joints, nerves and muscles throughout the body, especially the spine.  In our view Chiropractors are non-surgical spine care specialists.

That question does not have a simple answer, the ideal treatment for any particular problem is really based on the individual problem and the person. We do know that for “uncomplicated” low back pain the first three research-based recommendations are to stay active, try over the counter medications and spinal manipulation.

In our clinic we try to combine several well recognized and researched treatment modalities to get the fastest resolution. We usually recommend a combination of activity and exercise, soft tissue massage, and manipulation/mobilization, in addition to other therapies where appropriate such as Kinesotape, Graston soft tissue mobilization, Rehabilitation, US/IFC and laser therapy.