Community Highlights: Meet Dr. Dan Wells of Ignite Chiropractic & Wellness Clinic

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Dan Wells

Hi Dr. Dan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up loving sports & being active. I played high school baseball at Blue Valley High School and knew that I wanted to play in college. I got to play 2 years of college baseball at Johnson County Community College and 2 years at Avila University in Kansas City. I loved sports and being active and I loved the challenge of making my self better in any sport and in the gym as well. With dedicating my life to the sports came a lot of injuries in the gym and on the field. I had to use chiropractic and physical therapy frequently throughout my career and they got me through all of those injuries so that I could keep playing the sport I loved. This motivated me to help other young athletes and professional athletes in the same way. Not only to prevent injury or to recover from injury but to help improve performance in their sport as well. I went to Cleveland Chiropractic College after getting my bachelors in kinesiology and really thrived in the functional movement and sports chiropractic side of things during school. After graduating with my Doctorate I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska for my first job running a small clinic in a town just outside of Lincoln. There, I was able to get several amazing opportunities working with young athletes and with patients with mental and physical disabilities as well as patients with autoimmune disorders. I was then able to get an incredible opportunity with working with professional and Olympic track and field athletes through the University of Nebraska. Since then, I have been able to become the chiropractor for the University of Nebraska track and field team and was able to travel with them to regionals at the University of Arkansas and to National Championships at the University of Oregon where the Olympic trials are held. Several of the Athletes on the UNL track team that I treated went on to compete in the Paris Olympics for their countries as well. In April of 2024 my wife, Dr. Elika Izadyar and I moved back to Overland Park, KS where both of us grew up to start our dream practice. I am able to treat athletes and general population, and my wife is specialized in pediatric care and pre- and post-natal care as well and is moving into the functional medicine space. We have been very blessed to have our location and with the amazing patients that we have been fortunate to serve and are excited to continue. I will continue to travel with the UNL track team during their seasons as well. I attribute all of my success and opportunities to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to my family and my beatiful wife who have all believed in me and pushed me every step of the way.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a very difficult road. Several people doubted me along the way with sports and with becoming a doctor and told me not to go in the direction I was going. Moving away from home and a fiancé right after school was incredibly difficult especially with not knowing anyone and knowing that I would need to spend at least 2 years training and learning the business before I could open my own practice. I drove back to Overland Park every weekend for a year in order to see my fiance and continued to do so in the following year as well. But I felt a calling from God to go to this place and learn, specifically because of the mentor and boss that I had who let me run a practice on my own in the small town in Lincoln. This forced me to learn and grow at a rate far beyond any of my peers who were mostly working at clinics as adjusters and not in the role of the business owner/ head doctor. This was incredibly challenging to say the least with being a doctor fresh out of school with no experience in the real world. But I had excellent mentorship and coaching and a lot of trial and error, and it grew me into a confident and passionate doctor who loved his patients and loved seeing the growth of my new clinic in the small community. After a year there I was married and my wife moved to the small clinic with me and we were able to learn the business together which prepared us for what we are doing now. We had many late nights and many hard times during this two year period including the loss of my father in law but we kept pushing. We knew that we could achieve our dreams if we stayed diligent and consisent in our work. We fell in love with our little clinic and made friends for life there. Starting our new clinic was no picnic either. We have spent the first two months working almost 7 days per week marketing and being at events and meeting with other businesses to get the word out about how we want to help people and serve our community. But the hard work and faith in God has consistently paid off as we have been non-stop blessed at every turn. We are very thankful to be home and serving the comminity that we grew up in.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ignite Chiropractic and Wellness Clinic is more than just another Chiropractic clinic, which is what they all say I’m sure. To the design of the practice itself to the atmosphere that we created in our clinic, we wanted to be different from the typical expectations that most people have of a chiro or medical clinic. There are bright colors and more of an open concept with no walls blocking the waiting room from the back of the clinic. There is daylight filling the space and the doctors are always up front connecting with the patients rather than being tucked back in an office. We want to be accessible to our patients rather than having that Dr. /Patient barrier that most people feel when in a doctor’s office. It has a large medical spa vibe to it that makes the patient feel more at home and relaxed.
What we do also differs from a normal practice. Normally when people think of a chiropractic practice, they think of coming in, getting an adjustment and leaving. What we do is a lot different. Since I have a background in sports, functional movement and physical therapy, we do a lot of muscle work and trigger point therapy on our patients before the actual adjustment in order to relax the muscles which makes the adjustment much more comfortable. After the adjustment we also do a lot of corrective exercise with our patients whether they are an athlete or not in order to help them avoid getting the same injuries and pain that brought them into the office in the first place. We also give our patients exercises to do at home that will help prevent injury and also help the adjustments last longer and have greater benefit. This education helps our patients reduce the amount of injury as well as allowing them to have lasting benefit, so they don’t have to come in for treatment as often. Patient education is perhaps the most important aspect of what we do in order to help our patients understand how to take care of themselves and to look at care from a preventative perspective instead of waiting for an injury to occur to do something about it. We also provide lifestyle changes, functional medicine, nutritional advice and plans for patients who are wanting to take their health to the next level.
I am so proud of the fact that we get to say that we actually get patients better instead of just putting a band-aid on the problem and then seeing lasting relief afterward. We want to literally ignite patients’ passion for their health!

What are your plans for the future?
We absolutely love what we do, and we want to definitely continue taking it to the next level! We are striving to create a multidisciplinary practice where we are able to provide a variety of services to our patients that provide a full scope of health. Things such as red-light therapy, sauna, laser treatments for tendon & collagen repair and ultrasound therapy as well. We also will be incorporating massage therapy, physical therapy, nurse practitioner and functional medicine services for patients with systemic, hormone, and autoimmune disorders.
The goal is also to continue working with athletes of all ages, especially with college and professional athletes that need more specific care and guidance to help with injury prevention and performance.
The goal will also be to expand the brand into other locations!

Pricing:

• 60$ new patient visit with x-rays, exam and triggerpoint therapy included
• 60$ cash visit with adjustment and all therapies and exercises that we provide included
• We take several major insurances as well

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ignitechirokc.com
• Instagram: ignitechiroandwellness