“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
Pinched Nerve treatment
in Lakeland and The Villages, FL
Pain, numbness or tingling that travels down an arm or a leg usually means a nerve root is under pressure. We locate where, then build a non-surgical plan around that finding.
- 22 years in practice
- Non-surgical, no nerve medication
- $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
A pinched nerve is a spinal nerve root under pressure, most often in the neck or the low back. It causes pain, numbness, tingling or weakness that travels away from the spine. ChiroMed examines both regions, images only when imaging changes the plan, and treats without surgery or nerve medication. Consultation, exam, X-rays if needed and a report of findings cost $47.
Understanding pinched nerve
A pinched nerve happens when a spinal nerve root is compressed or irritated where it exits the spine. The nerve keeps firing, so you feel pain, tingling, numbness or weakness along its path, often far from the spot that is actually compressed.
Clinicians call this radiculopathy. Each nerve root leaves the spine through a small opening between two vertebrae, and anything that narrows that opening can irritate it: a bulging disc, a thickened ligament, arthritic bone change, or simple loss of disc height. The nerve does not have to be crushed to misbehave. Mild, sustained pressure is enough to make the signal unreliable, which is why symptoms often feel out of proportion to what shows on a scan. It also explains why the pattern is a map. One root sends symptoms into the thumb. Another sends them into the big toe. Reading that map is most of the examination.
You can usually point to where a pinched nerve started, and you almost never can point to where it ends. The ache sits in the neck and the fingers go numb. The low back feels tight and the calf burns. Most people who call ChiroMed have already been told to rest it, already tried anti-inflammatories, and already been handed a referral for an injection they did not want. That sequence skips the question that decides everything: which nerve root, at which level, and why is it under pressure now. Dr. Justin Bergin, DC answers that first, in Lakeland on South Florida Avenue or in Lady Lake for patients across The Villages. Nothing starts until you have seen the findings.
Independent background: Radiculopathy, Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Symptoms
Most people recognise their own version somewhere in this list. Each one maps to a specific finding the examination checks for.
- Pain that travels down one arm or one leg
- Numbness in specific fingers or toes
- Pins and needles along a set path
- A sharp, electric jolt with certain movements
- Weakness in the grip, the foot or the shoulder
- Symptoms worse with coughing or sneezing
- Neck or low-back stiffness on one side
- Relief when the arm is raised over the head
- Night symptoms that ease once you stand up
Common causes
A bulging or herniated disc
Disc material pushes toward the nerve root and takes up space that was never spare. It is the most common mechanical cause in working-age adults.
Foraminal narrowing from arthritic change
Bone spurs and thickened ligament narrow the opening the nerve travels through. It builds over years, so the first symptom is often stiffness rather than pain.
Loss of disc height
As a disc dehydrates it flattens, and the opening above and below closes down with it. Nothing tore. The space simply shrank.
Posture and sustained load
A keyboard, a long commute on the Polk Parkway, or a golf swing repeated all week keeps one segment loaded the same way. The tissue adapts, and not in your favour.
An old injury that never fully settled
A collision or a fall changes how a segment moves. Years later the neighbouring level carries the difference, and that is where the nerve gets caught.
How we treat pinched nerve in Lakeland and The Villages
Treatment starts with an examination that identifies the level and the mechanism. From there the plan combines chiropractic care to restore segmental motion, decompression to reduce pressure at the disc, and neuromodulation where the pain signal itself has become the problem.
Spinal decompression for the compressed level
Computer-controlled traction applied to the segment the examination identified, aimed at reducing pressure on the disc and the nerve root. It is the tool of choice when imaging and the symptom map agree that a disc is the source. You stay clothed and drive yourself home.
Neuromed electroanalgesia for the pain signal
Neuromed delivers targeted electrical stimulation aimed at the pain signalling itself rather than at masking it with a prescription. It earns its place when the nerve stays loud after the mechanical pressure has been addressed, or when medication is not something you want to take.
Chiropractic care to restore segmental motion
Specific adjustment of the segments above and below the involved level, so the compressed opening is not fighting a joint that has stopped moving. It is the part that holds the other two together over a course of care.
What recovery usually looks like
Examination and report of findings Your first two visits
History, orthopaedic and neurological testing, and X-rays where they change the decision. You see what was found before care begins.
The active phase The opening block of care
Visits cluster more closely while the mechanical pressure is addressed. Most people notice the travelling symptoms shortening before the local stiffness resolves.
Reassessment At a set checkpoint in the plan
We retest the neurological findings we started with. If the objective signs have not moved, the plan changes or you get a referral. A non-responder is told, not carried.
Holding the gain After the active phase
Frequency drops and the work shifts to the loading habits that produced the problem. Some people keep a maintenance interval, some do not. It is a choice, not a subscription.
When to seek care sooner
A few days of sensible self-care is reasonable for a mild, recent pinched nerve. Keep moving within comfort rather than lying flat, change position often, use heat on the muscular tightness, and stop the one activity that reliably reproduces the jolt. Raise your monitor. Take the wallet out of the back pocket. Give it about a week. Some things do not wait. Get assessed urgently for weakness that is getting worse, a hand that drops things or a foot that catches on the kerb, numbness in the saddle region, any change in bowel or bladder control, fever alongside spinal pain, or symptoms that began with significant trauma. Those are surgical or emergency questions, and we will say so plainly.
Red-flag findings belong with a physician, promptly, and not with conservative care alone.
Cost, insurance and financing
What a course of care costs depends on what the examination finds, not on a package chosen before anyone has looked at you. Your first visit is the $47 consultation, exam, X-rays if needed and report of findings.
The one published price
Consultation, Exam, X-Rays (If Needed) & Report of Findings: Only $47
What moves the cost
- Whether the plan is chiropractic alone or adds decompression and Neuromed
- Whether imaging is needed to confirm the level
- How many regions are involved, and how long symptoms have been present
What a course includes
- The examination and the written report of findings
- Reassessment of the same neurological findings as the plan progresses
Payment: Chiropractic care at ChiroMed bills insurance, and our team verifies your benefits before your first visit. Where a plan adds device-based care your policy does not cover, you are told before it is scheduled. Medicare coverage varies by plan and by service, so the front desk will confirm what applies to you. Payment plans are available for self-pay care.
Who you would be seeing
Dr. Justin Bergin, DC has spent 22 years reading nerve-root patterns, and he does the examination himself at both offices. His position on radiculopathy is unfashionably simple: find the level, prove it with testing rather than assumption, and treat the mechanism instead of the sensation. He built ChiroMed to reject the rushed-appointment model, which here means the examination takes as long as it takes.
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
The Lakeland office sits on South Florida Avenue, close to Southgate Shopping Center and an easy run from Highland City, Christina, Scott Lake, Dixieland and the Polk Parkway exits. Patients from Grasslands and Cleveland Heights tend to book the early block before work. In Lady Lake the office is on North US-441 just above CR 466, a short drive from Spanish Springs Town Square, Summerfield, Fruitland Park, Oxford and Wildwood, inside the golf-cart-friendly stretch that Villages residents in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties use every day.
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 approachDecompression and chiropractic care | Physical therapy | Nerve medication such as gabapentin | Epidural or nerve-root injection | Spine surgery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Segment-specific traction plus adjustment, with Neuromed added where the signal persists | Graded exercise and manual therapy to build tolerance around the segment | A prescription that quiets abnormal nerve firing throughout the body | Steroid placed near the irritated root under imaging guidance | Removal or fusion of the tissue compressing the root |
| Typically considered when | Examination and symptom map agree on a mechanical cause and there is no progressive weakness | Strength and control are the limiting factor, or as a follow-on to hands-on care | Pain is severe, constant and not settling with conservative care | Conservative care has not worked, or a diagnostic block will change the decision | Weakness is progressive, or imaging confirms a lesion that will not resolve |
| Invasive? | No. Nothing is injected and nothing is cut | No | No, though the side effects are systemic | Yes. Needle-based and image-guided | Yes. Major surgery with a real recovery |
| Offered at ChiroMed? | Yes, at both offices | Soft tissue and rehabilitative work are delivered here as part of the plan | Not prescribed here. Appropriate when pain is unmanageable and a physician judges the trade-off worthwhile | Not performed here. Appropriate when conservative care has failed or a diagnostic block will change the decision | Not performed here. Appropriate for progressive neurological loss or a confirmed surgical lesion |
Surgery has a real place. Progressive weakness, a foot that drops, or any change in bowel or bladder control belongs with a surgeon the same week, and when an examination points that way we say so and refer.
What to expect
From evaluation to a plan for your pinched nerve
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.
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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 pinched nerve 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
Pinched Nerve questions
Tap a message for the honest answer. Call Lakeland (863) 940-3444
Can a chiropractor fix a pinched nerve?
A chiropractor can treat the mechanical causes of most pinched nerves, which is where the majority of them come from. Restoring motion to a restricted segment, reducing disc pressure and calming the surrounding tissue often resolves the symptoms. A nerve compressed by a lesion that needs surgery will not respond, and the examination is what tells the two apart.
the clinic teamWhat is commonly mistaken for a pinched nerve?
Shoulder impingement, thoracic outlet syndrome, a peripheral nerve entrapment at the elbow or the wrist, and referred pain from a joint rather than a nerve. Peripheral neuropathy also mimics it, though those symptoms tend to sit in both feet rather than following one nerve path down one leg.
the clinic teamWhat is a red flag in chiropractic?
A finding that means the problem is not ours to treat. Progressive weakness, numbness in the saddle region, loss of bowel or bladder control, unexplained weight loss, fever with spinal pain, or pain that is unrelenting at night. Any of those and you are referred out the same day.
the clinic teamDo I need an MRI before I can be treated?
Usually not. The examination and X-rays answer most questions about the level and the mechanism. An MRI becomes worth the trouble when the findings suggest a surgical problem, when weakness is present, or when conservative care has not produced the expected change.
the clinic teamWhat is the average cost of a chiropractic adjustment in Florida?
It varies widely by region, by clinic and by what is included in the visit, so a single average is not much use to you. What matters is what your own plan covers. Your $47 first visit at ChiroMed includes the consultation, exam, X-rays if needed and the report of findings.
the clinic teamWill my insurance pay for pinched nerve care?
Chiropractic care at ChiroMed bills insurance and our team verifies your benefits before the first visit. Device-based additions such as decompression are handled separately and are quoted to you in advance. Medicare coverage varies by plan and by service, so ask the front desk to check yours specifically.
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