The first treatment:

Your medical history:

Before we treat you we will take your full medical history, we will ask about the problem area, when it started and what makes it worse. We will ask questions about your past medical health, your lifestyle, your job and daily activities to aid our diagnosis.

Physical exam:

This is followed by a physical examination where we ask you to undress to your underwear, or a vest top and shorts. We will observe your posture: how you hold yourself, how you move and which movement(s) makes the pain worse. We may need to do some specialised checks at this point such as blood pressure, pulses, sensory skin testing, reflexes etc. Using palpation we will examine areas which are painful and passively test their movement. This helps us identify which underlying structures are causing your symptoms. To complete the examination we may move on to other areas of the body to help us get a clearer picture of the injury and why it has not healed.

Diagnosis:

After examining you we will explain the nature of your injury to you as well as the possible causes and the prognosis. If we feel that osteopathic treatment is not appropriate for you we will refer you to you GP or another specialist.

Your treatment:

As osteopaths we use a wide range of hands-on treatments which are it is different for each person, taking into consideration age, fitness and the diagnosis. It frequently includes soft tissue massage, joint articulation and muscular stretches. We may perform a range of gentle manipulations where you may hear a click, similar to clicking your knuckles. These techniques should help relieve pain and encourage a free movement of the area. At the end of the treatment the osteopath may discuss exercises to be done at home to continue improving the range of movement or postural. We usually advise you take it easy 12 hours following treatment.