During our daily interaction with the world, we put our bodies through a series of movements, and sometimes we overdo it. This leads to pain and discomfort in different body areas, and then we seek our medical professionals to get relief. While standard medicine diagnoses and prescribes medicine, more people are turning to a holistic approach from professional specialists like osteopaths.
Are you looking for a doctor who wants to treat your whole body rather than just the symptoms? Maybe you have thought about going to an osteopath but are unsure what it’s all about. You should prepare before an osteopath appointment to ease your mind.
Here’s a guide on how to get ready for an osteopath appointment.
What’s an Osteopath?
An osteopath is a practicing doctor specializing in osteopathic medicine. This is a broad field with lots of training similar to that of medical doctors, naturopaths, and chiropractors. While these other fields follow specific paths and therapies, an osteopath does it all, with training in conventional and manipulative medicine. They look to treat the whole person and understand the connection between mind and body.
Their techniques include:
- Diagnosing and treating injuries and illness
- Prescribing medicine
- Performing surgery
- Using massage, stretching and musculoskeletal movements
Rest assured that these medical professionals have received much of the same training as medical doctors but have chosen to enhance their training and skill set to treat a person’s health and wellness beyond the conditions and diseases they present.
Your First Visit
Booking your first appointment with an osteopath won’t be like a regular doctor’s visit. Your doctor has short appointments where they listen to your problems and then prescribe medicine for them. If you have an emergency, they are there to patch you up, but beyond that, they offer pharmaceuticals for whatever ails you.
When seeing an osteopath for the first time, it usually takes 45 minutes to an hour, and you are there to fully explain what you are dealing with. The doctor will listen and ask questions to get an overall picture of your current state of health and understand what brought you to this point.
From there, they will examine you. You may be required to remove some of your clothing but will have a gown and or towel provided. This allows the doctor to directly connect to your body as they look and feel for problems. You may be asked to do a series of movements while they watch your posture and mobility. They also examine your joints, muscles and ligaments using palpation, a highly developed sense of touch using their hands.
After your examination, your osteopath will give you the results of their findings and recommend a treatment plan tailored to you and your current condition. They also take the time to explain everything and will answer any questions you have. You will then book a series of sessions to work directly with them, as their goal is to help you regain your full function and relieve any pain you are experiencing.
Subsequent Visits
As you continue your treatment, you will schedule regular visits based on your osteopath’s advice. During these sessions, your osteopath will use various techniques they are trained in. Soft tissue techniques involve applying pressure to the muscles around your spine. Thrust techniques use quick movements to restore joint function, similar to chiropractic methods.
Articulation uses gentle, rhythmic movements at the joints, while visceral manipulation focuses on gentle movements in your abdomen and pelvic areas. Muscle energy techniques involve pushing against the force your practitioner applies to your muscles. Massage, which is part of soft tissue work, often includes deep-tissue massage. Your osteopath may also use other methods like trigger point therapy, dry needling, and myofascial release to support your treatment.
These are all hands-on approaches, but your osteopath is dedicated to equipping you with different lifestyle strategies to correct your injuries, pain and limited mobility once you leave their office. These are all drug-free, non-evasive forms of healing and following their recommendations will speed up your recovery.
Direct You to Other Professionals
An osteopath has many tools in their tool kit but is also there to utilize other professionals when needed. Suppose you have a problem they recognize as needing medical attention beyond their purview. In that case, they will talk to you about it and recommend other medical professionals from whom you should seek treatment, including your family doctor and other holistic practitioners.
This is what to expect at an osteopath appointment. It may be an eye-opening experience for you to have a medical professional take so much time to help you, but this is their calling and focus on health and healing. Embrace all that your osteopath gives you and watch your recovery from pain and injury be fast-tracked to get you back to optimal health.
