Should I See an Osteopath, Physiotherapist or Chiropractor? What’s the difference?

Should I book in with an Osteopath, a Physiotherapist, or a Chiropractor. What is the difference between a Chiropractor and a Physiotherapist and an Osteopath? These are some of the most common questions we get in the clinic or over the phone. It almost sounds like the start of a joke, an osteopath, a physiotherapist and a chiropractor walk into a bar….

These health modalities may appear very similar in the problems they treat however, it is the difference in philosophies, principles and the way the techniques are applied that sets them all apart.

While it is not for us to explain the philosophies of Physiotherapy or Chiropractic, we can tell you all about Osteopathy….

Aa osteopath takes a holistic approach to health. By that, we mean we dig deeper to find the cause of a problem, not just the symptoms. An example of this might be: if you are suffering from knee pain we will assess not only your knee biomechanics and associated muscle groups but we’ll also look at your foot, hip and low back as they too will influence the function of your knee. We know that other areas of the human body love to refer to the knee so we assess accordingly. We’ll also delve into what your doing in your daily life that might be aggravating your knee, such as truck driver who jumps out of his truck down on to the one knee many many times a day. By changing the way he gets out of the truck, we can change the amount of stress going through that joint, which will ultimately help with the knee pain.

Some other aspects that we believe sets Osteopathy apart from the rest as that we:

• We spend more time with you…. Our initial treatments are up to 60 minutes, and 30 mins for review consultations, giving us time to explore all factors that may be contributing to your pain
• We don’t treat multiple patients at a time
• We don’t just give exercises and use heat or ultrasound
• We don’t just manipulate or crack joints exclusively, excessively or heavily
• Will not just treat the sore joint or muscle, we look for the cause
• Will not put you on a payment plan where payment is expected up-front for subsequent treatments
• We are a very hands on experience at Pakenham Osteopathy. Expect to receive soft tissue massage, joint and muscle mobilisation, articulation and stretching. Where indicated and patient consents we also do joint manipulation / “cracking”
• We are all qualified in dry needling
• We have radial shockwave therapy – appropriate for chronic tendon conditions that are unresponsive to other interventions
• Don’t expect a 5-10 minute consult
• Don’t expect us to only tape, prescribe exercises and not get our hands dirty!

So if you’ve been putting up with your aches and pains try a different approach – at Pakenham Osteopathy we really care about your health. Give Osteopathy a go!