“Dr. Bergin at Chiromed Wellness Centers is the best chiropractor in town. I no longer have to take pain meds. If you still have pain, you’re not seeing to best chiropractor.”
Condition
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome treatment
in Lakeland and The Villages, FL
A numb hand at three in the morning is the classic sign. We examine the wrist and the neck, because in a surprising number of cases the nerve is being squeezed in both places.
- Wrist and neck both examined
- 22 years in practice
- $47 new-patient exam
- 22 years in practice
- $47 new-patient exam
Medically reviewed by Dr. Justin Bergin, DC Updated September 14, 2026
Quick summary
Carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the median nerve where it passes through the wrist, producing numbness, tingling and weakness in the thumb side of the hand. ChiroMed treats it without surgery or injections, and examines the neck as well as the wrist, since the same nerve can be compressed at both ends. The first visit, including examination and report of findings, is $47.
Understanding carpal tunnel syndrome
The carpal tunnel is a narrow passage on the palm side of the wrist. The median nerve and nine tendons share it, and there is no spare room. Anything that swells the tendons or reduces the space compresses the nerve, and the hand it serves begins to complain.
The tunnel is bounded by wrist bones on three sides and a tough ligament across the front, so it cannot expand when its contents do. The median nerve supplies the thumb, index and middle fingers and half the ring finger, plus the muscles at the base of the thumb. That distribution is diagnostic: numbness in the little finger is not carpal tunnel. Pressure inside the tunnel rises when the wrist is held bent for long periods, which is why symptoms cluster at night. The pattern is progressive, from intermittent tingling to night waking, then daytime numbness, then weakness at the thumb base.
It usually announces itself at night. You wake with a hand that feels dead, shake it out over the side of the bed, and it comes back. Then it starts happening during the day, holding a phone or a steering wheel, and eventually you drop a coffee cup and admit something is wrong. The standard path from there runs splint, then injection, then surgery, and for some people that is genuinely right. What frequently gets skipped is a proper look at where the nerve is actually being squeezed, because the median nerve begins its journey in the neck and can be compressed at more than one point. Dr. Justin Bergin, DC examines both ends at the first visit, in Lakeland or in Lady Lake for The Villages.
Independent background: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine.
Symptoms
Most people recognise their own version somewhere in this list. Each one maps to a specific finding the examination checks for.
- Numbness in the thumb, index and middle fingers
- Waking at night with a dead hand
- Shaking the hand to bring it back
- Tingling while driving or holding a phone
- A grip that has quietly weakened
- Dropping small objects without warning
- Burning across the palm
- Clumsiness with buttons, keys or jar lids
- Loss of bulk in the muscle at the thumb base
Common causes
Sustained and repetitive wrist load
Assembly work, long hours at a keyboard, trade work with vibrating tools, or a hobby that grips for hours. The tissue swells and the nerve pays for it.
The size of the tunnel you were born with
Some people simply have a narrower carpal tunnel, which is why the condition runs in families and why two people doing identical work end up differently.
Fluid retention and hormonal change
Pregnancy and thyroid conditions increase fluid volume in the tissues, reducing the space in the tunnel. Pregnancy-related cases frequently settle after delivery.
Diabetes and metabolic factors
Diabetes makes peripheral nerves more vulnerable to compression and can cause numbness in its own right. Telling the two apart changes the plan entirely.
A contributing cervical nerve root
The median nerve originates from nerve roots in the lower neck. Where one of those is also irritated, the nerve tolerates far less pressure at the wrist.
How we treat carpal tunnel syndrome in Lakeland and The Villages
Care addresses the tissue that is crowding the nerve and the pressure it is under, at the wrist and at the neck where the examination shows both are involved. Nothing is injected and nothing is cut, and the plan is reassessed against objective testing rather than impressions.
Neuromed electroanalgesia for the nerve pain
Neuromed applies targeted electrical stimulation to the abnormal signalling that produces the burning and the night waking. It is most useful where the nerve has become sensitised, and for patients who would rather not take a daily medication for a local problem.
Cold laser therapy over the tunnel
Low-level light applied over the carpal tunnel and forearm, aimed at the inflamed tendon sheath taking up the space. It is painless and requires nothing afterwards.
Soft tissue therapy through the forearm and wrist
Manual work through the forearm flexors, the wrist retinaculum and the fascial planes the nerve travels through, including nerve gliding. Where a cervical contribution exists, the same approach runs through the neck and shoulder.
What recovery usually looks like
Examination of wrist and neck Your first two visits
Sensory mapping across the hand, grip and pinch strength, provocative wrist testing and a cervical examination. The findings tell you where the nerve is compressed.
The active phase The opening block of care
Visits sit closer together while the tissue around the nerve is worked on. Night waking is usually the first thing to change, and the easiest for you to track.
Reassessment At a set checkpoint in the plan
Grip strength and the sensory map are retested against the baseline. If numbness is unchanged or the thumb muscle is losing bulk, the recommendation becomes a surgical opinion.
Keeping it settled After the active phase
Focus moves to the loads that caused it: wrist position, grip duration, tool choice and sleeping posture. Some patients keep the night splint indefinitely.
When to seek care sooner
Several things genuinely help before you book anything, and the first is a night splint. A simple over-the-counter brace holding the wrist straight overnight is the highest-value self-care measure here, because it stops hours of sustained flexion. Get the keyboard and mouse to a height where the wrists rest neutral, break up any task that grips continuously for more than half an hour, and look at whether a vibrating tool is part of your week. Give it a few weeks of consistent effort. Some findings mean a surgical opinion instead. Get assessed promptly for numbness that is now constant rather than intermittent, visible loss of muscle bulk at the base of the thumb, weakness that is making you drop things, symptoms that began suddenly after a wrist injury, or numbness spreading into the little finger and forearm.
Red-flag findings belong with a physician, promptly, and not with conservative care alone.
Cost, insurance and financing
Cost depends on whether the examination finds a wrist problem alone or a wrist and neck problem together, since the second takes more work. Your first visit is $47 and includes the consultation, examination, X-rays where they change the plan and the report of findings.
The one published price
Consultation, Exam, X-Rays (If Needed) & Report of Findings: Only $47
What moves the cost
- Whether a cervical contribution is present alongside the wrist compression
- How far the process has progressed, which shapes what is realistic
- Whether laser and Neuromed are indicated or whether manual care alone is enough
What a course includes
- Sensory mapping, grip testing, wrist and cervical examination, and the report of findings
- Retesting of grip and sensation against your own baseline at the reassessment
Payment: The payment model is mixed and written per service. Chiropractic and manual care bill insurance, with benefits verified before the first visit. Cold laser and Neuromed sit on the self-pay side. Medicare coverage varies by plan and by service, so the front desk will confirm what applies to your policy.
Who you would be seeing
Dr. Justin Bergin, DC has 22 years in practice and examines the neck on every hand case, which is not standard and is why some patients who had given up get a different answer here. He is equally direct about the limit: a hand with constant numbness and a wasting thumb muscle needs a surgeon, not a course of care, and he says so at the reassessment rather than letting a plan drift.
Dr. Justin Bergin, DC, 22 years in practice, performs the examination personally and explains the findings before any program starts. Lakeland: 6595 Florida Ave S, Suite 13, Lakeland. The Villages market office: 929 US-441 #404, Lady Lake. Both offices run the same program.
Getting to us
Lakeland is a working city and most of the hands we see belong to people who use them: warehouse staff along the Polk Parkway, tradespeople across Highland City and Mulberry, office workers in Grasslands and Dixieland. The South Florida Avenue office keeps an early block for patients who need to be at work by eight. Lady Lake is a different picture, where the load is more often a hobby than a job: pickleball, woodworking, quilting and long hours in the garden. That office sits on North US-441 above CR 466, within reach of Spanish Springs, Summerfield, Oxford and Wildwood.
Browse every condition on the conditions we treat index.
Options compared, honestly
This is treated very differently depending on who you walk in to see. Here is the full set, including the options this practice does not provide.
| Criteria | Our approachSoft tissue therapy with cold laser and Neuromed | Night wrist splinting | Workstation and activity change | Corticosteroid injection | Carpal tunnel release surgery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Manual and nerve gliding work, laser over the tunnel, neuromodulation for the pain signal | A brace holding the wrist neutral overnight to keep tunnel pressure down | Changing the postures and repetitions that keep loading the tunnel | Steroid placed into the carpal tunnel to reduce swelling around the nerve | Division of the ligament across the front of the tunnel to release the nerve |
| Typically considered when | Symptoms are intermittent to moderate, without muscle wasting, and you want to avoid injections or surgery | Symptoms are worst at night, at any stage. Useful alongside almost everything else | An identifiable occupational or hobby load is clearly driving it | Symptoms are marked, and a physician wants to reduce swelling or test the diagnosis | Numbness is constant, the thumb muscle is wasting, or conservative care has failed |
| Invasive? | No. Hands-on and drug free | No | No | Yes. Needle-based procedure with a limited number of repeats | Yes. Surgery, though often a short recovery |
| Offered at ChiroMed? | Yes, at both offices | Not fitted here, and we will tell you exactly what to buy and how to wear it | Yes, built into the plan as advice at the first visit | Not performed here. Appropriate when a physician judges swelling is the driver or wants a diagnostic response | Not performed here. Appropriate for constant numbness, thumb muscle wasting, or failure of conservative care, and that decision belongs with a hand surgeon |
Surgical release is a good operation with a strong track record, and delaying it while the thumb muscle wastes is a poor trade. If the examination shows constant numbness or visible muscle loss, we will say so and point you toward a hand surgeon rather than start a plan.
What to expect
From evaluation to a plan for your carpal tunnel syndrome
A course, not a single visit. The examination decides the length and the cost, and both are written down first.
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01Evaluation
Orthopedic and neurological testing, with imaging on site where it changes the plan.
- 02
Findings, in plain language
What the examination actually found, and honestly whether this is a case conservative care can help at all.
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03A written program
Which disciplines, how many visits, over what period, and what it costs. Decided before anything begins.
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04Reassessment as it runs
Function is re-measured through the course. If the response says the plan should change, it changes.
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Find out what is actually driving it before choosing a program.
“I have had sich a great experience seeing Dr. Bergin. When other offices have told me I just had muscle damage or the only thing they could do for me was give shots, he said he had others ways to manage my pain and numbness, along with improving mobility. And he was right! I feel so much better!”
“I have had pain in my right upper back quadrant by my shoulder blade for at least a year now and the doctors have been unsuccessful in making the pain go away. I came to Dr. Bergin looking for some help. Within 3 to 4 weeks. My pain in that area is completely gone.”
“Dr. Bergin is phenomenal. Chronic lower back issues led a different doctor to mention back surgery to me. That was not an option I wanted to entertain. After a consult with Dr. B, he was confident that he could help resolve my back issues. I’ve been seeing him weekly to resolve the issue, and I am so pleased with the results so far! More mobility, less pain, and a great customer experience.”
“I bless the day that Dr. Bergin started working on me. I have had long standing pain for so long. After just a few visits my pain left and I feel so good. He is very patient oriented and caring. I regard him highly.”
“Dr. Bergin was instrumental in relieving my back pain which I had for many years. The techniques he used on relieving my back pain were impressive. I been going to chiropractors for years and Dr. Bergin is the best.”
Get in touch
Schedule your carpal tunnel syndrome evaluation
Tell us what you are feeling and which office is closer. A member of the ChiroMed team follows up within one business day.
- 1
Send the form
Two minutes. Tell us what hurts and which office is closer.
- 2
We call you back
A real person, within one business day, to find a time that works.
- 3
Exam and answers
History, orthopedic and neurological testing, imaging on site when it changes the plan.
- $47 consultation, exam, X-rays if needed and report of findings
- Payment plans available on the self-pay programs
- 4.8 out of 5 from 225 Google reviews
- Choose Lakeland or The Villages on the form
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome questions
Tap a message for the honest answer. Call Lakeland (863) 940-3444
Can carpal tunnel be treated without surgery?
Often, yes, particularly when symptoms are still intermittent and there is no muscle wasting at the thumb base. Night splinting, load change, manual and nerve gliding work and laser all have a role. Once numbness is constant and the thumb muscle is shrinking, the evidence favours surgical release and we will say so.
the clinic teamWhat is commonly mistaken for carpal tunnel syndrome?
A cervical nerve root problem heads the list, then ulnar nerve compression at the elbow, thoracic outlet syndrome and peripheral neuropathy from diabetes. The clue is distribution. Genuine carpal tunnel spares the little finger, so numbness that includes it is telling you to look elsewhere.
the clinic teamHow do I know if my neck is part of my hand problem?
Suggestive signs are neck or shoulder blade pain alongside the hand symptoms, numbness that reaches above the wrist, symptoms that change with neck position, and a hand that has never fully responded to wrist-only treatment. A cervical examination settles it in a few minutes.
the clinic teamDoes carpal tunnel go away on its own?
Pregnancy-related cases frequently settle after delivery. Cases driven by an occupational load usually do not resolve while the load continues. Intermittent night symptoms can improve considerably with splinting and changed habits alone, which is why those are worth trying before anything else.
the clinic teamCan a chiropractor help carpal tunnel?
For the mechanical and soft-tissue side of the problem, yes, and the cervical examination is a genuine advantage of seeing a spine-focused clinician. A tunnel narrowed by an old fracture or a nerve already showing muscle wasting will not respond, and the examination is what distinguishes those.
the clinic teamWill insurance pay for carpal tunnel treatment here?
Chiropractic and manual care bill insurance and your benefits are verified before your first visit. Laser and Neuromed are self-pay and are quoted to you in advance. Medicare coverage varies by plan and by service, so ask the front desk to check your specific policy before anything is scheduled.
the clinic teamSame-week appointments
Start with an examination, not a package.
Find out what is actually driving it before choosing a program.
- 4.8 out of 5 on Google
- $47 consultation, exam and report
- 22 years in practice
Consultation, Exam, X-Rays (If Needed) & Report of Findings: Only $47