Not all people who are good with their hands build things. Some use their skill to bring healing to others. Dr. David Snellgrove, a doctor of chiropractic medicine and partner at Return to Health on Highway 90, is one of the latter.
How does chiropractic care vary from conventional paths of treatment?
“If we can help a person become healthier without taking pills, that’s our goal,” Snellgrove said.
When most people think of chiropractors, they assume the treatment path will involve the “rack and crack” routine they’ve heard tell of. But chiropractors are trained and licensed to offer a variety of treatments that go far beyond bone manipulation.
”We focus on the alignment of the spine,” Snellgrove said. “Picture a water hose. That’s your spine. And if someone or something is standing on the hose pinching off the flow of water, well, your spine carries all of the nervous system’s commands to the rest of your body. If something is interfering with the flow of information coursing down your spinal column, then the symptom will be pain.
“Pain is a symptom that something is wrong,” he added. “We carefully examine a patient’s bio-mechanical structure, determine the cause of the pain, and then decide on the best course of action.”
The course of action may include physical therapy, moist heat, ultrasound, electric muscle stimulation or manipulation.
“All treatment begins with a physical examination and x-rays to determine what a person’s bio-mechanics are,” Snellgrove said.
Doctors of any variety will tell their patients that if they want to get well and stay well, they will have to work at it.
“The absence of pain or disease is not necessarily an indication of health,” Snellgrove said. “Health is a spiritual, physical, and mental triune of life, and a spinal misalignment can also detract from a person’s sense of well-being.”
Snellgrove is from central Florida, and came to the Pensacola/Gulf Breeze area in 1996. He practices only in Milton now, having moved to his present location at the intersection of Glover and Highway 90 two years ago.
A former airman with the U.S. Air Force, he and his wife Michelle enjoy the small town atmosphere of Milton and being around people who have what he calls “hometown values.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosas Press Gazette: How does chiropractics vary from conventional treatment? Milton's Dr. Snellgrove shows us