Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 4, April 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Crown Hill chiropractor

in fifth year serving community

By JAMES BUSH

Scott Lynch has a singular accomplishment that sets him apart from most people: he actually found a career at Career Day.

Lynch, now a chiropractic doctor and owner of Crown Hill Chiropractic, says he was quite impressed with the chiropractor who spoke at his high school. "He was the only person at Career Day who was excited about what he was doing," he recalls.

Later, when Lynch began to investigate the various healing arts in order to choose a career, he was struck by the same phenomenon. He spent time observing many health care providers, including medical doctors and orthopedists, but just confirmed his first impression. "For the most part, the chiropractors were very happy," he recalls. "They loved what they did."

Add Dr. Lynch to the list of content chiropractors. His Crown Hill practice is in its fifth year and has added a second chiropractor, Kimberly Cincilla, to allow full-time operation.

Lynch spends two days a week at his second office in Duvall. He and wife, Melissa, a dog trainer, make their home in the town of about 5,000 people.

A Vermont native, Melissa wanted to live in a rural area, but Lynch was determined to also maintain an office in the city, where he enjoys working with the larger and more diverse patient base.

Chiropractors concentrate on a patient's spinal column, correcting errors in alignment (known as subluxations) with spinal adjustments accomplished by using either the doctor's hands or a low-force instrument known as an activator. "If there is any misalignment, it can compress the spinal cord or nerves," says Lynch. "It interferes with your ability to create or maintain health."

Lynch says chiropractors stress the value of spinal adjustments as primary health care which helps the body heal itself.

Chiropractors also teach patients about better nutrition, encourage exercise, share stress reduction techniques, and dispense the type of advice you're likely to hear from any health care provider (don't smoke, avoid alcohol and drugs, and drink plenty of water), says Lynch.

"Yes, people heal up with chiropractic," says Lynch, "but we want the body to be a self-healing organism like it was designed to be."

Chiropractors take a four-year course of study after their regular college degree, with an emphasis on anatomy, neurology, and diagnosis skills.

By the time he completed his own training at Life University in Marietta, Georgia, Lynch says he personally performed some 250 adjustments on patients under the supervision of trained chiropractors.

Newly trained chiropractic doctors must complete a battery of tests, plus comply with licensing requirements in the states in which they practice.

Interestingly enough, the success of chiropractic treatment in addressing sports injuries has drawn many athletes to the field, so Life University is known for its excellent sports teams, which have won a string of national small college championships.

A single spinal adjustment can be accomplished in just a few minutes, Lynch says, although new patients undergo a diagnostic process which takes about half an hour.

Treatments are generally covered by standard medical insurance, although Lynch also offers payment plans to keep care affordable for everyone.

Founded in 1895, chiropractic care is the oldest and largest natural healing profession.

Lynch says one of the highlights of his Crown Hill office is that he has kept the same staffers for so long. Original office manager Jessica Asp is a licensed massage therapist, whose business (Oasis Massage Therapy) now shares space with Lynch's practice. Another longtime staffer recently left to spend more time with her young children.

One unusual aspect of Lynch's training is that has been taught how to perform spinal adjustments on animals, and has a bulletin board full of photos of happy patients with their happy dogs to prove it. While he doesn't charge for treating patient's dogs, he says he's learned to ask them to bring Fido by at the end of the day.

"The office kind of breaks down when we have two or three dogs in here," Lynch says. "Our main focus is people."

* * *

Crown Hill Chiropractic is located at 9776 Holman Road NW, #109. For more information, call 782-8800.