What does Osteopathic Treatment involve?
When you see an Osteopath it is a hands-on experience. We will take a case history and ask all your medical details. Then we examine the patient, and this may not be just the area you have come about.We need to see and feel what is wrong so we can make an accurate diagnosis and suggest a treatment plan.We should be able to tell you what is causing the problem, and if not, we will refer you back to your GP, if we need further information or do not think you are suitable for treatment.
Treatment itself is gentle and should not hurt (although some patients will be in pain when they visit,so even examination may be painful) but we are trained to help and advise on this. Treatment itself should not cause pain.
We work with massage to reduce the muscle tone, to improve drainage, to increase circulation, to stimulate or relax tissues. We use the bodies mechanical levers to articulate, to stretch, elongate and increase flexibility of ligaments and joints. We occasionally use manipulation and this can cause a click or popping sound from the joint, manipulation causes reflex relaxation in related muscles via the nervous system and it is also thought to increase viscosity of the joint fluid.
These techniques help speed up recovery and allow the bodies own self healing mechanisms, to aid in this, and resolve restrictions to the healing process.
We treat patients, not conditions; we are often looking for the underlying cause to the problem, which can be many and varied ie :posture, lifestyle, habits, hobbies and poor work position, ergonomics, and many other issues that are secondary to the primary problem, that is causing your symptoms.
Many patients can have an illness or injury and this gets better and the symptoms go, but the original injury/illness has been compensated for by the body, leading to a secondary problem.
I saw a lady today who had a routine blood test, but the needle hit her nerve in the arm, which caused temporary pins and needles and some weakness and pain in the forearm.This got steadily better but over the time she used her arm and shoulder very differently and this has now given her shoulder and neck, upper back problems.
We can help with these biomechanical/functional problems. The treatment will often only involve 2-3 visits, unless it is has been a long lasting issue over year’s and in those cases there will often be advise on lifestyle and exercises to help you to manage the problem yourself.
We are a team in helping you get better. Hopefully with the correct communication we will find out anything else that might be affecting your problem in your life. You as the patient have a greater understanding of what your problem is and ‘WHY’ you have it.
We hope that through education we can allow you to help yourself now and in the future. If you get another problem you know how to help yourself and what course of action to take.
We are always at hand to help support you. We are your Osteopaths whether we are seeing you or not.