If your back has been hurting long enough that you’ve started planning your day around it — how you’ll get out of the car, whether you can sit through a meeting, which side you can sleep on — you’ve waited long enough.

Back pain is the most common reason people walk into our office, and it’s rarely as simple as “I slept wrong.” Something is loading your spine in a way it wasn’t built for, and until you find out what, the heating pad and the ibuprofen are just buying you a few hours at a time.

Dr. Mark Chiungos has been relieving back pain in Chelmsford since 1999 — 25+ years in the same community, treating the same families. In most cases we can get you real relief without drugs and without surgery.

Call (978) 376-8190 to schedule an evaluation.

Common Causes of Back Pain We Treat

The pain is the symptom. The point of your first visit is finding the cause, because these don’t all respond to the same care:

• Herniated or bulging discs — disc material presses on a nerve root. Often produces leg pain along with the back pain. This is the one that responds best to decompression.
• Degenerative disc disease — discs lose height and hydration with age, narrowing the space nerves pass through. Common, and manageable.
• Sciatica — pain running from the low back through the hip and down the leg, usually on one side.
• Muscle strain and joint restriction — the lifting injury, the shoveling weekend, the long drive. Real, painful, and usually the fastest to resolve.
• Spinal arthritis and stenosis — the canal or the joints narrow and crowd the structures inside.
• Posture and mechanics — a desk setup, a commute, an old injury you compensated around for years. Frequently the reason the “sudden” back pain wasn’t actually sudden.

Two people can describe identical pain and need completely different care. That’s why we don’t hand every back pain patient the same protocol.

How We Relieve Back Pain

Chiropractic adjustment — restoring how the spine moves

When spinal segments stop moving properly, the ones above and below take on load they weren’t meant to carry, and the surrounding tissue becomes inflamed. Targeted chiropractic adjustments restore that motion and take pressure off the irritated area.

For a lot of mechanical back pain, this alone does the job. We adjust based on what your exam shows, not a one-size protocol — and we’ll tell you if we think you need something more.

When decompression is the right call — herniated disc and sciatica

If the cause is a herniated, bulging or degenerating disc — especially if the pain travels down your leg — SpineMED® spinal decompression is often the most direct answer.

SpineMED is an FDA-cleared table that gently separates the affected vertebrae to create negative pressure inside the disc. That can draw herniated material back away from the nerve, and it lets fluid and nutrients move back into a disc that’s been starved of both. You lie fully clothed on the table — no anesthesia, no incision, no recovery period. Most patients rest or read through the session and drive themselves home.

It’s a course of treatment rather than a single fix, and we’ll be straight with you about whether you’re a good candidate before you commit to anything. Most chiropractic offices in the Merrimack Valley don’t have this technology; it’s one of the main reasons patients drive to us from outside Chelmsford.

If your back pain runs down your leg, see our page on sciatica pain relief in Chelmsford.

Aspen Apex Laser Therapy — for the inflammation

Aspen Apex Laser Therapy uses three specific light wavelengths to reduce inflammation and support tissue repair. It’s drug-free, and it’s particularly useful when an area is too irritated for manual work to be comfortable yet.

For most back pain patients, some combination of these works better than any one alone.

What Happens at Your First Visit

We schedule longer appointments than most practices, deliberately. Your first visit is an actual evaluation: history, orthopedic and neurological testing, a look at how you move, and a conversation about what you feel and when you feel it.

By the end of it you’ll know what we believe is causing your back pain, whether we think we can help, and what a course of care would realistically involve — including roughly how long and how often. If we don’t think we’re the right fit for what you have, we’ll say so and point you toward someone who is.

More about what to expect as a new patient

Call (978) 376-8190 to get on the schedule.

Insurance and Medicare

We accept Medicare, Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts Health Plan, BlueCross BlueShield, and UniCare/GIC.

Medicare covers chiropractic spinal adjustment when it’s medically necessary. Most commercial plans include a chiropractic benefit, though visit limits and copays vary. Coverage for spinal decompression specifically varies more between plans — call us and we’ll help you check your benefits before your first appointment rather than after it.

Serving Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Westford, Billerica and Lowell

Our office is at 5 Fletcher Street in Chelmsford, easy to reach from Route 3 and I-495. We regularly see patients from Chelmsford, North Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Westford, Billerica and Lowell.

A Chiropractic Wellness Place, PC
5 Fletcher Street, Chelmsford, MA 01824
(978) 376-8190

Schedule your evaluation

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a chiropractor help my back pain?
For most mechanical and disc-related back pain, yes — chiropractic care addresses the joint restriction and nerve irritation that are usually driving it. How much it helps depends on the cause and how long it’s been going on. The honest answer is that we can tell you after an evaluation, not before one, and if we don’t think chiropractic is the right approach for what you have, we’ll say so.

Is back pain treatment covered by Medicare?
Medicare Part B covers chiropractic spinal manipulation when it’s medically necessary to correct a subluxation. It does not cover every service a chiropractic office offers — X-rays, massage and some therapies are typically excluded. Call our office at (978) 376-8190 and we’ll walk you through what your specific plan covers before you start.

How many visits until I feel relief?
It depends on the cause and how long you’ve had it. Some patients with recent mechanical back pain feel a meaningful difference within the first few visits; long-standing disc problems take longer and involve a course of care. We’ll give you a realistic timeline after your evaluation instead of a generic number up front — and we’ll reassess as we go rather than locking you into a fixed package.

Do I need a referral to see a chiropractor in Massachusetts?
No. Massachusetts is a direct-access state, so you can schedule with a chiropractor without a physician’s referral. Some insurance plans have their own referral requirements, so it’s worth a quick check with your carrier — or with us.

When is back pain a medical emergency?
Most back pain isn’t. But if you develop rapidly worsening leg weakness, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, or any loss of bladder or bowel control, seek emergency medical care immediately — those can indicate cauda equina syndrome, which needs urgent surgical evaluation. Back pain with fever, unexplained weight loss, or following significant trauma also warrants prompt medical assessment.