My treatment plans are designed to get your symptoms to calm down as quickly as possible, and to keep them from coming back. New patients see results quickly, which then motivates them to complete their prescribed plan. This is where the magic happens, as folks who put in the work in the early stages of treatment get the most long lasting benefit. The treatment style I’ve developed and the setup I have at the clinic saves time and money in the long run. My patients often ask great questions about treatment frequency during their first visit or after wanting back in after some time off, so I decided to condense my thoughts on the matter for easy reference. There’s a couple of things to remember when it comes to the frequency of your Acupuncture visits if you want to get the most out of them.
1) You can never have Acupuncture treatments too close together, but you can definitely have them too far apart. Treatments work cumulatively and we want to continue building on the progress you make in your initial visit or follow up. If you get treated and your symptoms slowly start to creep back in before your next scheduled appointment then you have most likely gone too far between visits. If you don’t come in often then we’ll be stuck in a back and forth of your symptoms improving, getting worse, improving, getting worse etc. In the long run this is expensive not just in terms of time and money but also in your quality of life. I don’t want this, and you don’t want this. We want your symptoms to improve, improve, improve and then… improve some more!
2) To accomplish this I need to see folks twice a week for the first 1-4 weeks depending on the duration and intensity of your main complaint. After that, as long as your symptoms are improving and staying that way between visits, then we’ll back you off to once per week. My treatment style often gets folks into this weekly phase much quicker than originally suggested. This is a good thing and I’m always up front and honest with telling patients when they don’t need to be seen as often. It costs the clinic some money in the short term, but It’s helped our reputation tremendously in the long term. At this point as long as symptoms continue to stay stable then we’ll keep treating you once per week. If they start to creep up during the week I want you to make an appointment online ASAP so we don’t lose all of our progress we’ve made.
3) Once your symptoms are not flaring up with weekly visits, or are completely gone, we’ll slide you right into “tune up” mode. This is where I have folks come in every 2-4 weeks to check in with me and get a follow up treatment to keep things improving and maintain our results. This is the frequency that that majority of our patients graduate to, and it takes them very little money or time commitment to receive great benefits to their overall quality of life.
4) Certain scenarios like an acute injury may require more frequent/shorter treatment plans, while others like fertility/obgyn issues are generally a longer and less frequent approach. Some folks just aren’t able to come in as often as suggested. In this case it is always better to come in less frequently, we just need to lower our expectations at how quickly we re-assess your progress. A follow up visit once per quarter is better than every 6 months etc.
These guidelines are a great start for the majority of folks and as always reach out with any questions!
Wiliam Boylan Lic.Ac
The Acupuncture Clinic of Bedford
292 Route 101 Bedford NH, 03070