Dr. Dean Bado, DC, Prescott Valley Chiropractic, began his career in 1993 after graduating from Parker Chiropractic College in Dallas, Texas. His self described mission when he started chiropractic school was to “improve the quality and longevity of lives around him”. Dr. Bado is highly experienced in multiple chiropractic techniques which 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 Prescott Valley and surrounding areas.
Expanding to serve a growing client base, a new office was opened at 377 N. Montezuma Street near downtown Prescott at the beginning of 2013. Dr. Bado is head physician at the new location and has enjoyed the challenge of getting a new facility up and running. He says every day is filled with multiple tasks to ensure they have the most efficient running new facility possible.
We were fortunate 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, a lot of people think that chiropractic care is for treating and preventing lower 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 much more than that. We're much more than treating symptoms. The basis of chiropractic is keeping us healthy by keeping the power that created our bodies and that same power that created our bodies heals our bodies throughout our entire lives, right? That power is, of course, housed in our brain and that power flows through our bodies via our spinal cord and our spinal nerve roots, and our job as chiropractors is to keep that power flowing through you as it was intended.
Our spinal column protects our spinal cord and all of our spinal nerve roots that exit through our spinal column. Our spinal column is really like segmented armor and those segments can impinge or pinch off the nerve in the spinal cord thereby interfering with that power that's housed in our brain from flowing through us like it should.
Kevin: There is a signal cut off, so to speak.
Dr. Bado: Yes, exactly. This signal is interfered with. We call it nerve interference and it can happen at any segment along the spinal cord where the spinal nerve roots exit through the spinal column. When two segments become misaligned, it pinches on that nerve and it interferes with the signals coming from the brain and so whatever is on the end of that spinal nerve root, it doesn't get the signals like it should. It becomes interfered with and it's our job is to remove that nerve interference by adjusting the spinal segment so that there is no more interference at that spinal nerve root level and as you can imagine, if that spinal nerve root that is exiting the spinal cord happens at say the level of the heart and it's being choked off back at the spinal column, do you think we're going to be healthier or do you think we're going to be sicker? We're 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 remain healthy, you just need to be interference free on the inside so that the power that created us can flow through us unimpeded and keep us healthy as it was designed to.
Kevin: Let's focus in a something a little more specific Dr. Bado. Let's say we have a patient with a stiff neck and neck issues. What are some procedures you would introduce to a patient with neck stiffness?
Dr. Bado: Well, always, we do a very thorough history. We want to make sure that we can help that patient so we do a very thorough questioning, a very thorough history, then of course we proceed through a very thorough chiropractic examination and then x-rays. Personally I'm a big stickler for x-rays. I like to see what's going on before we go ahead and get in there and do any adjusting of any kind. First and foremost we need to make sure the patient is truly a candidate for chiropractic care so we proceed with thorough consultation, history, examination, and x-rays to make sure that we can be of help to 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 to maintaining good spinal posture and spinal alignment. Absolutely. When you get bad posture is when things like spinal misalignments happen. Bad posture leads to muscular problems, those muscles now that are made to move us around now become supportive or weight bearing.
Our muscles were made to move us around and our skeleton was made to bear our weight and when we get bad posture, we get changes in the shape of our spinal column and now those muscles become weight bearing and that's typically when pain happens. That tension at the end of the day or when you get up in the morning you're stiff and sore. That's from poor sleeping postures or a poor pillow. Poor sitting postures will certainly do that to your lower back as well.
Kevin: So what happens is it changes your body's dynamics?
Dr. Bado: Exactly. Through the properties of plastic deformation, if you were to set a perfectly straight 2×4 across two saw horses and come back a couple of days later, that 2×4 is not going to be straight anymore. Nobody acted upon that 2×4, nobody jumped on it and bent it out of shape, well the same thing and that's called plastic deformation, the same thing happens to our ligaments especially when we sleep or sit for long periods of time. Gravity takes over and stretches the ligaments which are what holds bone to bone and then those ligaments get stretched out of shape and then our whole structure gets out of shape as well.
Kevin: Dr. Bado, what are some of the common misconceptions that some people might actually have that hurt their chances of success?
Dr. Bado: Common misconceptions are typically that you can just go to your chiropractor and “get popped” and then you're all good.
Kevin: Or adjusted?
Dr. Bado: Yes, they call it popped and we call it adjusted. That's just not the way it is. Chiropractic is an ongoing type of treatment much like going to the dentist and keeping your teeth in good shape. We believe that to offset spinal decay and degenerative disease and osteoarthritis of the spine that you need to be adjusted on a very regular basis because we're all very active or we hope that we're active and even if we're not active, that's even worse.
We need to keep that spine in good alignment and we need to keep it in alignment on a regular basis. So the big misconception is that once you go to a chiropractor you always have to go to a chiropractor and that simply isn't true. What it is, once you go to a chiropractor, you know what it is to feel good. You know what it is to feel healthy. Now you always choose to go to the chiropractor. That is probably the biggest misconception that we have. You know, once you go, you always have to go.
Kevin: Dr. Bado, I really appreciate your time today. To wrap this up, what's the one biggest consideration a prospective patient should make when they're considering chiropractic care?
Dr. Bado: The closeness of the clinic to the patient's house. We find that obviously if it's easier and it's convenient to get there, we find the patient tends to be much more compliant and then success goes way up. Personally, as I said, I'm a stickler for x-ray. I would go to a practitioner that had an x-ray machine in his office and a practitioner that you trust and are comfortable with. Usually that comes about as a referral from somebody else. Go with a practitioner that someone has already used and can vouch for them and refers you there.
Kevin: Right. That is so true that the best advertising is definitely word of mouth. If someone is happy with their care and they're feeling good and healthy and a lot better than when they first came in, they're certainly going to tell somebody.
Dr. Bado: Yes, absolutely. Word of mouth is the best way.
Kevin: Thank you, Dr. Bado, for taking the time out of your busy day to spend a few minutes with us.
Dr. Bado: You're very welcome.
Dr. Bado, DC, can be reached at his Prescott facility where he is currently accepting new patients. Their office number is 928-778-9600. Their business website is prescottvalleychiropractic.com.
By Kevin Nimmo –
