What happens in an Acupuncture Treatment
Prior to your visit, we ask that you complete the Symptom Survey to help us better diagnose how we can help.
A practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine will take a detailed history and also examine your tongue and take your pulse in several different places.
A first acupuncture session typically lasts about an hour and a half, with follow-up sessions taking 30 minutes to an hour. You’ll be asked to lie or sit on a padded table, and to remove or loosen just enough clothing to get comfortable and to uncover areas to be treated.
The treatment can involve from two to 15 hair-thin sterile needles (all acupuncturists today use disposable needles) inserted just under the skin.
Acupuncture shouldn’t hurt much. You may feel a “pinch” or sting and some warmth or tingling for a few seconds. If pain persists, report it right away.
The acupuncturist will leave the needles in place for a few minutes to an hour (20-30 minutes is typical), checking to make sure you are comfortable or to remove or manipulate some needles to stimulate the acupoints. People usually feel very relaxed some fall asleep. Sometimes tiny amounts of an herb called mugwort (or moxa in China) are burned– painlessly – over the stimulation points; this can be very energizing. After the treatment, you’ll be asked to rest quietly for a while and then get up slowly, noticing any changes. You may feel a bit lightheaded at first. This should be reported if it persists. You should feel relaxed.
People have widely different responses to acupuncture – even people with the same disease or symptoms. Some feel an immediate and strong effect. It may take a couple of sessions for others to feel anything. Most often results are felt within a day. Changes felt from the first treatment are not usually long lasting, but relief can become long lasting or even permanent after an appropriate series of treatments. How long it takes to get relief depends on how long the problem has persisted and the strength of the person’s constitution.
