Dr. Dean Bado, DC, Prescott Valley Chiropractic, on chiropractic care beyond back pain
Dr. Dean Bado, DC, Prescott Valley Chiropractic, began his career in 1993 after graduating from Parker Chiropractic College in Dallas, Texas. The mission he himself described when he started chiropractic school was “to improve the quality and longevity of the lives around him.” Dr. Bado has a wealth of experience in multiple chiropractic techniques that are then used according to each client’s needs and preferences. He has been a partner with Dr. Julie Schifferli, DC, helping to run a successful full-service Prescott Valley chiropractic clinic serving the Prescott Valley and surrounding areas.
Expanding to serve a growing client base, a new office opened at 377 N. Montezuma Street near downtown Prescott in early 2013. Dr. Bado is the chief physician at the new location and has enjoyed the challenge of get a fresh installation up and running. He says every day is filled with multiple tasks to ensure they get the new facility up and running as efficiently as possible.
We were lucky enough to take a few minutes out of Dr. Bado’s busy day to discuss the virtues of chiropractic care beyond back pain.
Kevin: Dr. Bado, many people think that chiropractic care is to treat and prevent low back pain. I was wondering what your thoughts are on this perception.
Dr. Bado: Well, that is certainly what the chiropractic profession has positioned itself as back and neck pain doctors, but chiropractic is so much more than that. We are much more than treating symptoms. The foundation of chiropractic is to keep us healthy by preserving the power that created our bodies, and that same power that created our bodies heals our bodies throughout our lives, right? That power, of course, is housed in our brain and that power flows through our bodies via our spinal cord and spinal nerve roots, and our job as chiropractors is to keep that power flowing through you as it was intended.
Our spine protects our spinal cord and all of our spinal nerve roots that exit through our spine. Our spine is really like segmented armor and those segments can affect or pinch the nerve in the spinal cord, interfering with the power that is housed in our brain from flowing through us as it should.
Kevin: There’s a signal cut out, so to speak.
Dr. Bado: Yes, exactly. This signal is jammed. We call this nerve interference and it can occur in any segment along the spinal cord where the spinal nerve roots exit through the spinal column. When two segments misalign, it pinches that nerve and interferes with the signals coming from the brain, and therefore whatever is at the end of that spinal nerve root doesn’t get the signals as it should. It gets interfered with and our job is to eliminate that nerve interference by adjusting the spinal segment so that there is no more interference at the level of the spinal nerve root and as you can imagine if that spinal nerve root that is coming out of the spinal cord happens to let’s say at the level of the heart and is being suffocated in the spine, do you think we are going to be healthier or do you think we are going to be sicker? We are going to be sicker, right?
So our job is to remove that nerve interference because we believe that you don’t need anything from the outside to stay healthy, you just need to be free from interference on the inside so that the power that created us can flow through us unimpeded and be sustained. healthy as designed.
Kevin: Let’s focus on a little more specific Dr. Bado. Let’s say we have a patient with a stiff neck and neck problems. What are some procedures you would present to a patient with a stiff neck?
Dr. Bado: Well, we always do a very complete story. We want to make sure that we can help that patient, so we do a very thorough history, a very thorough history, then of course we do a very thorough chiropractic exam, and then X-rays. Personally, I’m a big fan of X-rays. I like to see what’s going on before I go ahead and go in there and make adjustments of any kind. First, we need to make sure the patient is truly a candidate for chiropractic care, so we proceed with a thorough consultation, history, exam, and x-rays to make sure we can help that patient.
Kevin: Does posture, stress, and inactivity really have an effect on something like neck pain?
Dr. Bado: Yes, absolutely. We always want to make sure that our sitting postures are very good, and especially our sleeping postures, mattresses, and pillows are very, very important for maintaining good posture and spinal alignment. Absolutely. When you have bad posture is when things like spinal misalignments happen. Poor posture leads to muscular problems, those muscles that are now made to move us now become supportive or weight bearing.
Our muscles were made to move and our skeleton was made to support our weight and when we have bad posture we have changes in the shape of our spine and now those muscles are weight bearing and that is typically when pain occurs. That tension at the end of the day or when you wake up in the morning you’re stiff and sore. That’s because of bad sleeping postures or a bad pillow. Poor sitting postures will undoubtedly also affect the lower back.
Kevin: So what happens if your body dynamics change?
Dr. Bado: Exactly. Through the properties of plastic deformation, if you were to put a perfectly straight 2×4 on two sawhorses and come back a couple of days later, that 2×4 won’t be straight anymore. Nobody acted on that 2×4, nobody jumped on it and deformed it, well, the same thing and that’s called plastic deformation, the same thing happens with our ligaments, especially when we sleep or sit for long periods of time. Gravity takes control and stretches the ligaments that hold one bone to another and then those ligaments stretch and lose their shape and then our entire structure also loses its shape.
Kevin: Dr. Bado, what are some of the common misconceptions that some people might have that hurt their chances of success?
Dr. Bado: Common misconceptions tend to be that you can just go to your chiropractor and “get it popped” and then all is well.
Kevin: Or tight?
Dr. Bado: Yes, they call it popped and we call it tight. That’s not the way it is. Chiropractic is a type of ongoing treatment much like going to the dentist and keeping your teeth in good shape. We believe that to compensate for spinal deterioration and degenerative disease and osteoarthritis of the spine, you need to adjust it very regularly because we’re all very active or expect to be active and even if we’re not, that’s even worse.
We need to keep that spine well aligned and we need to keep it aligned regularly. So the big misconception is that once you go to a chiropractor, you always have to go to a chiropractor and that’s just not true. What is it, once you go to a chiropractor, you know what it’s like to feel good. You know what it’s like to feel healthy. Now you always choose to go to the chiropractor. That is probably the biggest mistake we have. You know, once you go, you always have to go.
Kevin: Dr. Bado, I really appreciate your time today. To conclude, what is the most important consideration for a prospective patient when considering chiropractic care?
Dr. Bado: The proximity of the clinic to the patient’s home. We found that obviously if it’s easier and more convenient to get there, we find that the patient tends to be much more compliant and then success increases. Personally, like I said, I’m a fan of X-rays. I would go to a practitioner who has an X-ray machine in his office and a practitioner you trust and feel comfortable with. Usually that comes up as a referral from someone else. Go to a doctor someone has already used and can vouch for and refer you there.
Kevin: Right. That is so true that the best advertising is definitely word of mouth. If someone is happy with your care and feels good, healthy, and much better than when you first arrived, they will certainly tell someone.
Dr. Bado: Yes, absolutely. Word of mouth is the best way.
Kevin: Thank you, Dr. Bado, for taking time out of your busy day to spend a few minutes with us.
Dr. Bado: You’re welcome.
You can contact Dr. Bado, DC, at his Prescott facility, where he is currently accepting new patients. His office number is 928-778-9600. His business website is prescottvalleychiropractic.com.
By Kevin Nimmo