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Types
of treatment
What
can be treated?
What
side effects?
What
are the precautions?
ACC
treatment
Make
an appointment
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First
time visit to Acupuncture |
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If
this is your first time visiting our acupuncture centre, we
strongly recommend you to read carefully through the following
explanations, which will then give you a better understanding
of acupuncture treatment. |
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Before
your first visit to the clinic, spend
some time to realistically think about your concerns or
questions, your expectations from the treatment. And try
to identify what mostly disturbs you, i.e. chief complaint,
be as descriptive and specific as possible. Bring your notes
and a list of current medications on your visit.
Set
aside enough time so that you are not rushing to and from
your visit. The first visit may take about 1.5 hour but
the followup visits will be about 45minutes to 1hour.
Be
on time for your appointment so that you may benefit fully.
When you make an appointment, please understand that time
has been reserved for you. If you need to cancel or delay
your appointment, please notice us 24hours prior to your
visit.
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During
your first visit to the clinic:
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The
practitioner may interview you at length about your health
condition, lifestyle, and behavior. The practitioner will
need to obtain a complete picture of your treatment needs
and behaviors that may contribute to your condition.
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Initial
Questioning
The initial questioning is a very important stage of your
treatment. It is best to inform the practitioner about all
treatments or medications you are taking and all medical conditions
you have.
The diagnostic methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
are used for the practitioner to examine patients and collect
pathological data, mainly including inspection, listening
and olfaction, inquiry and palpation. While some of the questions
may seem completely irrelevant to your condition, for example
asking the quality of your bowel movements when you came in
for back pain or your psychological state when you came in
for menstrual problems, however, there are very good reasons
behind the questions. Your answers to the questions, along
with other basic diagnostic methods, allow the practitioner
to tailor a unique treatment plan specifically to you. It
is also helpful for the practitioner to modify your treatment
plan over time if they are not proving effective.
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Diagnosis
and Treatment
After the initial questioning, your practitioner will form
a diagnosis, treatment plan and begin the acupuncture treatment.
Generally speaking, your practitioner will usually not discuss
your diagnosis in TCM terms, which are very different from
the ones used in Western medicine. When the practitioner uses
the TCM terminology to describe your condition, it is quite
often that you will be confused and mislead by those terms.
For example, a diagnosis of Liver blood and Yin Deficiency
would not mean very much to you as a patient and could make
you think there is something wrong with your physical Liver
when it is likely that there is not. However, your acupuncturist
will be more likely to describe the treatment and his/her
intent with the points.
The initial treatment may use 3 - 10 or more acupuncture points,
is fairly conservative to ensure that you are comfortable
with acupuncture and to allow your acupuncturist to see how
you respond to acupuncture.
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Prognosis
How many treatments are needed? In deed, this is a very common
question we have been asked.
It
is always difficult to formulate a definitive prognosis, especially
following an initial consultation. However, after 2 or 3 treatments,
your acupuncturist should usually have a good understanding
of your condition and be able to offer you a reasonable idea
of how many treatments you will need.
After
initial treatment, some patients may occasionally notice a
brief worsening of the symptoms of their conditions, some
will immediately feel changes, and others with more serious
or recalcitrant conditions may experience a gradual improvement
with progressive treatments before a significant change occurs.
This is because acupuncture treatment works on all parts of
the body to rebalance from the condition so that to increase
energy and improve the circulation. Many times the changes
are slow and somewhat subtle, therefore if you are not feeling
any changes, it does not mean that acupuncture is not helping
you. Contrarily, your practitioner is usually able to distinguish
the relative effectiveness of the treatments through precise
questioning or detect subtle changes in your tongue or pulse.
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At
the end of your first visit to the clinic:
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As
part of your overall treatment plan, your practitioner will
be also likely to advise you various beneficial changes with
regard to diet, lifestyle and behavior, etc. To follow the
advice given will maximize the effectiveness of acupuncture
treatment and may help to improve your overall condition.
As we believe, the more a person gets involved in being responsible
for his or her own health, the more they will get from the
treatment.
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If
you would like to ask questions, express concerns, and provide
feedback during any stage of your treatment, we encourage
you to contact us any time.
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If
you believe that your condition is related to work or sport
injuries, please click here. |
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