A Typical Treatment

 

The initial visit consists of an extensive review of the Patient Health History. This includes the familiar questions a person usually sees on health questionnaire forms. In addition, the new patient will be asked many questions about the condition that brought them in for an acupuncture treatment so that the practitioner can get a complete story of how the condition developed. The patient will also be asked questions about sleep, digestion, daily intake of food, exercise, elimination patterns, social support systems and how the patient generally relates to the world. All of these questions help the practitioner to determine a composite Oriental medical diagnosis for the patient so that a treatment plan can be formulated.

 

 

Answers to the questions begin the process of determining the medical composite which is then corroborated or changed during the next step of the initial visit. This step consists of an examination of the patient's tongue and taking of the patient's pulses. The practitioner is looking at the tongue for its size, the tongue coating, the tongue color and any change of color or coating on the tongue because each of these characteristics has a different meaning to the practitioner and indicates which specific organ meridian systems may be out of harmony. Pulse-taking also helps the practitioner determine where there is imbalance in the organ meridian system as there are six main pulses at each wrist each related to a different organ system.

 

Once the practitioner has made the diagnosis and chosen the acupuncture points to be used, the treatment begins. The patient lies down on a comfortable massage table. Each of the point locations is cleaned with an alcohol swab and then a sterilized acupuncture needle is inserted. Needles are usually left for forty to forty-five minutes. The initial visit usually takes an hour and a half to two hours.

 

Subsequent visits lasts 45 minutes to an hour. The general protocol for treatment is four to six weekly treatments which are necessary to bring the body into a balanced state of health. Usually after the weekly treatments, patients are able to recognize a better level of health and amelioration of the original condition that brought them in for acupuncture. The frequency of treatments will vary with each individual and their needs. Once a patient realizes satisfactory results from treatment, they are encouraged to maintain a seasonal maintenance schedule in order to stay in a balance. However, the frequency of treatments will vary with each individual and their needs.

 

Many conditions may be alleviated very rapidly by acupuncture. However, some conditions that have arisen over a course of years will be relieved only with slow, steady progress.