Towson, MD Health and Fitness

Dr. Steven W. Haywood’s proficiency at transforming smiles earned him a spot on ABC2’s Extreme Makeover Special, and his staff strives to recreate the calming atmosphere of a spa in their office. In cosmetic dentistry treatments, Dr. Haywood fills gaps between teeth with porcelain veneers and straightens smiles with Invisalign and orthodontia. Lasers whiten teeth in fewer than two hours or help the doctor sniff out cavities without calling in a specialized bloodhound to follow the scent of decay through your mouth. An intraoral video camera sends mouth-views to a TV screen, letting both doctor and patient share the same view of each tooth.

Experienced, board-certified physician Dr. Terrance L. Baker called upon his 25 years of medical experience to develop noninvasive, FDA-approved Sollay therapy as a means of treating chronic aches and troublesome fat. During each treatment, the low-level beam of the laser apparatus floods skin in therapeutic, single-wavelength light. These beams raise the temperature of the injured tissue, which increases blood flow and boosts lymphatic drainage to oust pain, fat, and swallowed chewing gum. Additionally, the laser helps deliver electrons to damaged cells, equipping them with a boost of energy that helps them recover naturally. Sollay treatments can tackle corporeal discomfort embedded within such body areas as the neck, back, knees, feet, and dorsal fin.

Even as an undergraduate student in exercise physiology, Stephanie Reid disagreed with the idea that bodily healing can be achieved only with pills, specialists, and invasive treatments. Holding a firm belief in the body’s ability to heal itself, she worked toward her certification in naturopathy and founded Your Healing Place. Today, she combines modern technology with a holistic approach to search for root causes behind maladies. In one-on-one visits with patients, she answers common questions and discusses symptoms before sharing recommended readings and evidence from similar cases.

Inside Your Healing Space, smooth jazz meanders through the reception area, where a bubbling water fountain calms nerves with a sound like a scuba diver reading haiku. The smell of lavender wafts through each room, emanating from fresh plants picked in an outside garden. In a separate area for children, little noses press against a fish tank while patients walk into a treatment room filled with salt sculptures, carved onyx apples, semiprecious stones, and crawling vines. Stephanie’s team of therapists uses a battery of assessment tools to seek out tissue anomalies at the cellular level and target uncovered issues with ultraviolet light, homeopathic foods and supplements, and five massage modalities. Stephanie says that these treatments have gotten her calls from medical doctors, who were curious after witnessing their ability to improve well-being.

Licensed chiropractor Rob Marvenko sees the body as a single, harmonious entity. Each component affects the function of all the others, as in a delicate ecosystem or the mosh pit at a Slayer concert. Marvenko's hands-on techniques reflect this holistic view of the body. During neuromuscular-reeducation sessions for soft-tissue injuries, he reinforces the nerve signals for functional movement by use of repetitive motions and muscle stimulation. Through the Chiropractic Biophysics technique, he focuses on normalizing posture and spinal curvature. In addition to bringing spines and nervous systems back into balance, he and the clinic's massage therapist practice hydrotherapy massage and physical therapy.

Skin may be smoothed and blemishes blended with SkinMedica's noninvasive Vitalize peel, which repairs faces that have long battled elements such as time and sun exposure. This chemical-peel treatment can smooth lines and wrinkles on faces of varying skin types, including those with mild to moderate issues, including abnormal pigmentation, melasma, and acne. The Vitalize peel is also reputed to build collagen, and visible changes are potentially noticeable after just one treatment.