Osteopathy Medicine

After a thorough history (including a discussion of traumatic events) and an osteopathic physical exam, the patient, preferably dressed in loose, comfortable clothing, lies down on a treatment table.

Osteopathic physician will typically place his or her hands underneath or over some part of the body to evaluate tissue function and structural dynamics. A thorough diagnosis connects the patient’s history and physical exam to the structural evaluation. A “cause and effect” relationship frequently emerges, and patients are often relieved to know that their symptoms make sense.

Treatment involves a gentle hands-on approach to free the areas of the body in which motion has become restricted, the sacrum (tailbone), or other areas of the body, gentle pressure and/or repositioning movements are applied to free the bones, tissues and fluids that have become restricted. Some patients sense only a gentle touch, while others feel their body change immediately.

Some simply feel a deep sense of relaxation, and others feel nothing at all. Though treatment is very gentle, patients may occasionally experience some discomfort during certain stages of the treatment. If this occurs it is simply a part of the healing process and as the treatment progresses, the discomfort subsides. As symptoms clear, patients often experience an ongoing sense of improved well-being and health. Most treatments take about 20 to 45 minutes.

Results depend upon many factors, including the body’s inherent vitality and the severity and the duration of the problem. Some conditions will respond immediately and some will require a series of treatments. It is important to understand that Osteopathy is not a cure-all. It can benefit everyone to some degree because everyone has been imprinted individually by the trauma of life. For some patients it might be necessary to include other types of treatment such as home exercises or even physical therapy along with the Osteopathic treatments in the office.

Like allopathic physicians (MDs), Doctors of Osteopathy (DOs) educated in the United States are fully trained and licensed to practice the entire range and scope of medicine and surgery. Here, DOs attend their own medical schools, and then continue in post graduate training programs, internships and residencies, often training side by side with their MD colleagues.

Doctors of Osteopathy receive additional education in the principles and practice of osteopathy as part of their basic medical education. Those doctors who utilize Cranial Osteopathy have many hours of additional training in the various functions of the cranium and primary respiration, and their relationship to all other parts of the body. This specialized training allows the osteopathic physician to diagnose and treat disorders and diseases in ways that are unique to the osteopathic profession.