Your Structural Exam

Diagnosis
Your structural exam will begin with an assessment of your posture, spine and balance. Your D.O. will then use his fingers to palpate your back and extremities. Your D.O. will then use his fingers to palpate your back and extremities. He will also check your joints for restriction and/or pain during motion as well as check your muscles, tendons and ligaments where tenderness can signal a problem. Through extensive osteopathic training in manipulative medicine, D.O.s can detect changes in tissue, however small, that signal injury or impairment.

Once the structural exam is complete, your D.O. will integrate this information with your medical history and a complete physical exam. After that point, a treatment plan can be established.

Treatment
Using a variety of OMT techniques, your D.O. will apply manual forces to your body’s affected areas to treat structural abnormalities and will then apply specific corrective forces to relieve joint restrictions and misalignments. Based upon the severity of your problem, you may require more than one treatment.