FAQs

How many visits will I need?
What if I use acupuncture?
What should I wear to my appointments?
What is a DO?
What does an MD and DO have in common?
How is a DO different from an MD?
What conditions can a DO treat with OMT?
Do all DO’s use OMT?
How many DO’s are in the United States as of 2013?
Can you help us understand how many people actually do what you do?
How many years of training and treating with your hands do you have?
What is the difference between licensing and board certification for a physician, and do you have any of these?
What is the difference between a DO and a chiropractor?
Do you work with acupuncturists and massage therapists?
How did you get interested in this career?
How does OMT benefit pregnant women and children?
Do you personally have people treat you with OMT, especially during your pregnancy?
Is osteopathic manipulative treatment safe?
What is a typical visit at your office?
If I have insurance, is there any way to be reimbursed?
How can we reach you?

How many visits will I need?

This is variable depending upon what is being treated and how extensive your treatment needs to be. Our goal is to bring you to optimal health so that you won’t need to continually return.

What if I use acupuncture?

Acupuncture can often complement osteopathic treatments.

What should I wear to my appointments?

Loose-fitting clothing or gym clothes

What is a DO?

D.O. stands for doctor of osteopathic medicine. DOs are complete physicians, fully trained and licensed to prescribe medicine and to perform surgery, as well as enter any other medical specialty.

What does an MD and DO have in common?

DOs and MDs are Alike in Many Ways:

Students entering both DO and MD medical colleges typically have already completed four-year bachelor’s degrees with an emphasis on scientific courses.
Both DOs and MDs complete four years of basic medical education. At the end of this you are technically a doctor.
After medical school, both DOs and MDs obtain graduate medical education through internships, residencies and fellowships. This training lasts three to eight years and prepares DOs and MDs to practice a specialty.
Both DOs and MDs can choose to practice in any specialty of medicine—such as pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry, surgery or ophthalmology, to name a few.
DOs and MDs must pass comparable examinations to obtain state licenses.
DOs and MDs both practice in accredited and licensed health care facilities.
Together, DOs and MDs enhance the state of health care available in the U.S.

How is a DO different from an MD?

The American Osteopathic Association, also known as the AOA, has a wonderful explanation on their website. You are more than just the sum of your body parts. That’s why DOs practice a “whole person” approach to health care. Instead of just treating your specific symptoms, osteopathic physicians concentrate on treating you as a whole.

The curriculum at osteopathic medical schools consists of four years of academic study. Reflecting osteopathic philosophy, the curriculum emphasizes preventive medicine and comprehensive patient care. Throughout the curriculum, osteopathic medical students learn to use osteopathic principles and osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT for short) to diagnose illness and treat patients with their hands. Osteopathic physicians understand how all the body’s systems are interconnected and how each one affects the others. This special training in the musculoskeletal system allows them to better understand how that system influences the condition of all other body systems. Being able to identify conditions and treat them using OMT encourages your body’s natural tendency toward health and self-healing.

What conditions can a DO treat with OMT?

When people speak of manual medicine, a lot of them think of only musculoskeletal problems like neck pain, back pain, knee pain, and other joint pains. There are many other medical applications for OMT, some of which include headaches, sinus infections, ear infections, pneumonia, asthma, reflux, constipation, and even assisting your body to recover after surgery.

Do all DO’s use OMT?

The short answer is No. You will need to ask your physician if they use this, or you can look them up in the AOA website (www.osteopathic.org)

How many DO’s are in the United States as of 2013?

Currently there are more than 80,000 DO’s in the United States.

Can you help us understand how many people actually do what you do?

According to the AOA, in 2013, 22,176 (36.9%) went into family medicine, 1,134 (1.9%) went into NMM/OMM and family medicine specialties who stress OMT in their practice, 20 (.025%) are Neuromusculoskeletal Med/OMM physicians in Texas. Out of these 20 they will either become a practitioner, consultant, professor, or researcher. 1 of them has a private practice dedicated to only OMM/NMM in Houston who loves working with new families.

How many years of training and treating with your hands do you have?

9 years

What is the difference between licensing and board certification for a physician, and do you have any of these?

Physicians are required to be licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. by the licensing board in each state they wish to practice.

A board certified physician has completed an additional training program in a specialty and has passed a rigorous exam to assess his or her knowledge, skills and experience to provide quality patient care in that specialty.

In my case, I am licensed to practice medicine in Texas, and I have two board certifications. The first one is Family Medicine and the second one is Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine/Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.

What is the difference between a DO and a chiropractor?

The primary differences between an Osteopathic physician and a chiropractor are their levels of training and the scope of their practice. A chiropractor is not a licensed physician and has not completed residency training in a hospital. The scope of chiropractic practice is defined by statute as “including the diagnosing and locating of misaligned or displaced vertebrae and, through manual manipulation and adjustment of the spine and other skeletal structures, treating disorders of the human body. The practice of chiropractic does not include the use of drugs or surgery, or the practice of osteopathy, obstetrics, or any other branch of medicine”.

Chiropractic is primarily concerned with normalizing the alignment of the spine to influence the relationship between the spinal column and the nervous system. Although their techniques have expanded somewhat in recent years to include more gentle techniques, the vast majority of chiropractic adjustments are still of the thrust variety, which you know as “popping and cracking.”

Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine is based upon the principle that the human body possesses self healing/self regulating mechanisms that are the source of true healing. For example, when you get cut, the wound doesn’t just stay open. The body heals itself over a period of days. The Osteopath is trained to discover the treatment plan that these self-healing forces have already designed, in that moment, specifically for that patient. The focus in treatment, therefore, goes beyond simple spinal alignment, to dealing directly with the abnormal body physiology using an array of direct and indirect techniques. This more holistic healthcare perspective, affords the Osteopath a broader spectrum of therapeutic options in addition to thrust techniques that chiropractors use.

Do you work with acupuncturists and massage therapists?

I believe they can provide value, so I may refer you to them when appropriate.

How did you get interested in this career?

I have always been doing things with my hands: drawing, painting, playing the piano, rock-climbing. When I was little, I wanted to be just like my pediatrician Dr. Gus. As I became older, I really liked the thought of being a surgeon, and that’s what I originally went to medical school to be. During medical school, when I learned the osteopathic principals and all the applications of osteopathic manipulative medicine it really resonated with me and also allowed me an avenue to use my hands. I knew I wanted to incorporate osteopathic manipulation no matter what specialty I went into. I receive a lot of gratification from my experiences with how OMT has been able to help people.

How does OMT benefit pregnant women and children?

While every patient is different, studies have shown pregnant women treated with OMT experienced:

Decreased low back pain
Decreased sacroiliac dysfunction (which is a contributor to low back pain and can cause difficulties during the birthing process)
Decreased carpal tunnel syndrome (you have more blood volume in your system during pregnancy, and this increased fluid can cause pressure in your wrists leading to carpal tunnel syndrome)
Decreased fluid overload (which means decreased swelling in your feet)
Decreased blood pressure (which is important because high blood pressure can cause complications during your pregnancy that lead to induction or emergency c-sections)
Decreased likelihood of a having a preterm delivery
Decreased duration of labor
Decreased use of forceps during delivery
Decreased probability of having meconium-stained amniotic fluid (meconium is your baby’s first poop. When the baby is stressed in the womb, they can sometimes poop in the womb, which is NOT something you want your baby inhaling on its first breath)

While every patient is different, studies have shown newborn children treated with OMT experienced:

Improved breast-feeding
Reduction in infantile colic (inconsolable crying)
Reduction in plagiocephaly (flat spots on baby’s heads, which are more common these days with baby’s being advised to only sleep on their backs)
Reduction in otitis media (middle ear infections)
Reduction in torticolis (where the baby’s head prefers to look in one direction only)
Improved asthma symptoms
Improved postural symmetry in infants

Do you personally have people treat you with OMT, especially during your pregnancy?

YES!! Not as frequently as I would like because I need to travel to see my osteopathic mentor.

Is osteopathic manipulative treatment safe?

Yes. Sometimes people have a treatment reaction where they feel some soreness for a day or two afterwards. The best way to deal with this is to make sure you drink plentiful fluids to flush out any toxins that were released during treatment. Sitting in an Epson salt bath also helps reduce the treatment reaction. Not everybody has a treatment reaction; it just depends upon how your body reacts.

What is a typical visit at your office?

The first visit is an hour long, during which I take an extensive history to understand your unique situation and then the rest of the time is spent performing osteopathic manipulative treatment. It is best if you wear loose, comfortable clothing for your treatments. Follow- up visits are half an hour.

This is different from the usual office visit when you go to the doctor. Let me give a story, My husband recently went into a doctor’s appointment and showed up on time, as he is busy. After waiting for 40 minutes he was finally brought back into an exam room, where he was now clearly upset. Then an additional twenty minutes went by where he waited impatiently and had to reschedule a work call. When the doctor did arrive in the room, they spent a grand total of five minutes speaking to him, typed on the computer for five more, handed a prescription to him, and then left. This is in large part due to the current volume-based business model driven by the insurance companies who reimburse the physicians. My husband and I do not believe that quality healthcare can be provided in five or ten minutes. In my opinion this is not the physician’s fault. They typically come out of training with an average of ¼ million dollars in debt that has to be paid back, and they are bound by how insurance companies reimburse them. When removing the insurance company from the equation, I now have the ability to spend a full hour with new patients and thirty minutes on follow ups. I have chosen my current practice model to allow me the time I feel is necessary to deliver quality care to my patients. This means I can see a maximum of 8 new patients per day.

If I have insurance, is there any way to be reimbursed?

Yes, I provide a superbill at the end of your visit, which you can then file with your insurance company as an out-of-network provider. After you have met your out-of-network deductible, your insurance company will reimburse you at the rates according to your specific plan.

I like to look at it this way. In most cases when you go to the doctor, you pay your copay at the time of your visit, and then several months later, you get a bill to pay because no insurance company covers everything. In coming to see me, you pay for everything up front, and then you can get reimbursed, and you’ll end up paying about the same amount as if you combined your copay and the bill you’d receive later.