Waterloo-based chiropractor Dr. William Pamer is not trying to reinvent the wheel. This month, when he opened the doors of his simple, yet homey new office on the on the lower level of the Elmira Shopping Village (soon to be called the Village Shoppes and Business Centre after its transformation is complete) at the corner of Church and Arthur streets, he became the sixth chiropractor to open a practice in Elmira.
The Ohio-born doctor has operated his own practice on Beechwood Place in Waterloo for the past 15 years. This year he’s decided to make himself more accessible to his rural patients by opening a part-time clinic at 10 Church St.
“A lot of my clients don’t have the means of getting into the city very easily, so it was important to me to be able to provide better access to them,” explained the doctor of his large Mennonite clientele. “About one quarter of all my patients in Waterloo were travelling from this area so it just made sense to open a practice a bit closer to their homes.”
Pamer noted that the number of practices in the town does not necessarily mean competition for business, but simply that the need for chiropractic aid is greater in this area than in others.
“People who do hard manual labour, like work on a farm, tend to dislocate or shift their joints more easily,” he explained. “We want to be available to those people in the area who can be more affected by muscle and joint pains because of their line of work.”
The chiropractic philosophy teaches that it is the nervous system that controls every cell in your body so by keeping it properly aligned, a chiropractor is able to improve your overall health – not just back pain as is the common misconception.
“When a patient comes in for a first visit we take your history and do a full examination to decide if you are a candidate for chiropractic therapy,” Pamer noted. “Through a process called nerve reflex testing, we are able to discover disruptions or dislocations which may be causing all kinds of irritations. So many people suffer needlessly and they don’t realize that their pains may be alleviated in a rather simple way.”
Despite a few minor kinks to be ironed out (the office does not have a phone line yet, but will soon) Pamer said that the transition to his Elmira office has been quite smooth.
“The biggest challenge for us is getting past the misperceptions,” he explained. “You may have tried a chiropractor and not been satisfied but it’s important to remember that each one does things a little differently. What we offer might be different than what you have experienced with someone else.”
The new clinic is now open to new patients and Pamer encourages people to be sure to say hello to his wife, daughter or son when they visit: the practice is entirely family owned and operated.
Currently, the office is open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but Pamer would consider extending those hours if he sees a great enough need. For more information, call the Waterloo office at 519-747-1032.
