Dr. Paul Dwight Walton, DC

Dr. Walton doesn’t just temporarily relieve symptoms, he solves problems. I’ve sent friends who had given up thinking they wouldn’t live their without pain. In 3-5 visits, they were new people. Dr Walton isn’t looking to put you on a schedule of 2-3 visits a week forever. He wants to, and has, made me and my friends pain free within that number of visits. He’s quirky and full of unusual knowledge and highly entertaining but most importantly, he gets results!

It is a healthcare practitioners responsibility to support patients, ensure their comfort and safety, and ultimately to DO NO HARM. With me, Dr. Walton failed this on all accounts. I am sharing this as a cautionary tale for others looking to seek out a healthcare practitioner to work with. Let me preface by stating that I am movement therapist and am currently in medical school. In my time in this field I have had the opportunity to work with a number of chiropractors and physical therapists both as a patient and as a colleague, so I had a fair amount of prior knowledge going into my treatment with Dr. Walton. I received his referral from a friend to help with stillness and dull pain in my neck that had been persisting for a few weeks, and after reviewing his background I decided to schedule an appointment. I am not going to disparage the techniques utilized by Dr. Walton, as this was one of the reasons that I sought out his treatment; however I am going to speak to his character… and the way in which he conducted himself through the course of our interactions. I also have to say that I can only speak to my experience which by nature is subjective, but I will try to communicate the events that transpired as factually as I can. One problem that ultimately led to the subsequent concerns that I am going to address, was Dr. Walton’s cavalier attitude toward treatment. In my first appointment he reviewed my chart, asked a few generic questions in regards to the pain I was experiencing, did a standing postural analysis, provided me with a diagnostic evaluation and a lecture on the common reasons for these problems, and then started immediately into doing adjustments. I was not afforded the opportunity speak or elaborate on some of the long standing chronic issues that I have had. After completing treatment, I started noticing a sharp twinge of pain in my neck that had not been there prior to seeing Dr. Walton. The next day following my treatment, the pain in my neck was persisting along with a sharp pain in my low back, which is one of my long-standing issues. The pain persisted throughout the week and I actually moved up my next scheduled appointment to help and address the pain I was in. At my second appointment, I shared my concerns about the new pain I was experiencing and that the pain was much sharper and more localized. Dr. Walton brushed these concerns off as completely normal within the course of treatment. He then continued through a very similar progression of adjusting my neck and back with a very aggressive approach to manipulation. I remember feeling quite uncomfortable and vulnerable with many of the adjustments. One adjustment he tried was not even possible due to my bodies guarding response. As I was walking down the stairs leaving his practice, I started noticing searing pain all along the right side of my back. This was in coupled by an increase in my neck and low back pain. After getting home from treatment, I was laid up in bed for the next 3 days with pain and spasming of my back and again called the office to share my concerns. Keep in mind I was initially going in for neck stiffness with some dull pain. Dr. Walton called me back and spoke to me about some of my concerns, he again mentioned that this was normal in the course of treatment making an analogy to doing a kitchen renovation. I agreed to come in for another appointment with a different approach. In the days leading up to my appointment my condition continued to worsen getting to the point of having to miss multiple days of school due to the pain. As I came in for my third treatment, I began questioning Dr. Walton on why my condition was continuing to worsen. I did not feel comfortable at the time going through another treatment without having a better explanation. He palpated my neck and told me that my vertebrae was out of place, which had not been mentioned at my first appointment. At this point he told me that I was an outlier, that pretty much everyone in his 35 years of experience with my condition have benefited from the treatment he gave me. This is not what he told me at my second appointment or when I spoke with him on the phone. Dr. Walton again attempted to rush me into treatment without really addressing the concerns I was voicing. As I didn’t feel comfortable going through the same thing again I stopped the treatment and again voiced my concerns. At this point he began to imply that I was the cause of what I was in so much pain, which I was not appreciative of. I became frustrated with this and pushed back that the pain I was experiencing is new pain that I did not have prior to treatment and that I am becoming more and more disabled as I continue through treatment. He told me that I was enraged, and as I refuted this point saying that I’m merely frustrated and in pain, he repeated the statement followed by saying that he knew this because my pulse was at 140 bpm, which he apparently was able to figure out during a few seconds of cervical palpation, and that there was white around my eyes. I was taken back and extremely offended that he was insisting he knew how I was feeling, even after I had corrected him. Consider the fact that I have been in extreme pain without relief as Dr. Walton had been attempting to normalize what I was experiencing each time I have raised concerns, then he tells me that I am an anomaly and that its more a problem with me than with his treatment. You can imagine my frustration. I ended the appointment and he apologized for his inability to communicate effectively. He mentioned over and over again that he was hearing my concerns, however never once apologized for his behavior. He minimized my concerns and his aggressive approach in subsequent treatments set me back a long way with some of the chronic issues I have worked to overcome. My biggest takeaways from my