Never Seen an Osteopath? Here’s What to Expect in Your First Appointment.
If you’ve never been to an Osteopath before, it can be tricky to know what to expect from your first appointment. Osteopaths are Allied Health professionals that have undergone university level training to practice Osteopathy. Osteopaths are regulated by AHPRA, the same government regulatory body that regulates Doctors, Nurses, Dentist and Physiotherapists.
Do I Need a Referral?
No, you don’t need a referral to see one of our Osteopaths. You can book in online anytime to find an appointment. Osteopathy can be claimed on most private health insurance policy with on the spot claiming available by our HICAPS terminal. You can be referred to an osteopath by your GP on a Team Care Arrangement, this allows a Medicare rebate to be claimed on your appointment.
What can I expect from my Osteopath in my first session?
Take a full medical history
Do a thorough musculoskeletal assessment
Provide you with a working diagnosis based on your history and assessment
Provide hands on treatment
Provide lifestyle and rehabilitation advice
Medical History
At Elevate Osteopathy, our initial consultations are one hour. This allows the Osteopath to take a thorough case history of your complaint, as well as a full medical history to understand the bigger picture of your overall health and the long-term habits and lifestyle factors that feed into your area of injury or pain. Osteopaths don't look to just treat symptoms, we're trying to optimise your health for the long-term to stop the same injuries and pain from coming back time and time again.
Musculoskeletal Assessment
After the Osteopath has taken your history, they will do a full musculoskeletal assessment with orthopaedic testing to discern what tissue may be causing your pain. They will often take you through a series of movements, assessing the quality of the movement as well as the range of motion and asking if any of these movements cause pain or discomfort.
Talk You Through Your Diagnosis
We think that it's really important that you don't just know what your diagnosis is, but fully understand it. Our Osteopaths will take the time to talk you through what your diagnosis means and how it can affect you in the long-term. We can educate you on what is the next best step to take and how to manage both acute and chronic conditions.
Hand-On Treatment
Osteopaths are phenomenal with their hands, from day one of university we are taught how to use our hands as our strongest diagnostic and treatment tool. This skill is called palpation and Osteopaths are amongst the very best professionals who have honed this skill over several years.
Hands-on treatment that you might get from an Osteopath is:
Soft and Deep Tissue Massage
Joint Mobilisation and Stretching
Joint Adjustments - HVLA
Muscle Energy Technique
Dry Needling
Exercise Rehabilitation
Osteopaths are also trained to facilitate rehabilitation programs. They can provide you with exercises to do outside the treatment room so you can better manage your pain from home between sessions. This might be exercises such as stretching, or exercises to strengthen your muscles. We also provide advice around what medications./supplements you can take as well as activities to keep doing and ones to avoid.
If you would like to book an appointment with one of our Osteopaths today, you can click the button below to book online.
