What is osteopathic medicine?
Osteopathic medicine provides all the benefits of modern medicine like prescription drugs, surgery, and advanced technology. But it also considers all aspects of you as a person, which means its treatments go beyond your current problems.
Osteopathic medicine promotes your overall health while preventing disease, both of which help you achieve complete wellness.
How do osteopaths differ from MDs?
Osteopaths are doctors who can practice in any medical specialty, just like MDs. Osteopaths are licensed to prescribe drugs and to perform any medical procedures.
There’s more, however, to how osteopaths conduct patient care. They consider all aspects of your life: family, work, other diseases or disorders you’ve had, your social life, and more. Osteopaths use all these factors to establish your treatment plan.
For instance, osteopaths know that many diseases are due to problems within the musculoskeletal system. So they pay attention to how all your body parts work together as they find ways to treat or prevent health problems.
Some things that osteopaths are trained to do include:
- Teaching you how to maintain a healthy lifestyle
- Going beyond just symptoms to consider the whole person
- Using your body’s own healing ability as part of your treatment
- Examining the interactions of all parts of the body
- Applying specialized training in the nervous and musculoskeletal systems
- Using ‘osteopathic manipulative treatment’*
Osteopaths are also trained to in osteopathic manipulative treatments. This which is a hands-on method for detecting muscle and nerve aggregation and relaxing them so healing can begin.
Is osteopathic medicine something new or uncommon?
No, osteopathic medicine been around since the late 1800s and has been growing ever since. Today, over 100,000 licensed osteopaths actively practice in the United States. Dr. Partridge is proud to be among the many practicing osteopaths in this country. She would be pleased to provide you with the insights that osteopathy brings.
What should I expect during my visit to an osteopathic doctor?
An office visit with an osteopath includes the following:
- An interview about your medical history and other aspects of your life
- A complete physical exam including test if needed
- A diagnosis based on your interview and examination
- A treatment plan including all options
Anyone who lives in or around Philadelphia and wants a unique approach to their health should contact Partridge Comprehensive Health Services and experience the difference osteopathic medicine makes.
