Your West Omaha Chiropractor:

Your First Visit

When patients come to see West Omaha's Chiropractor, Doctor Kevin Kosak, for the first time, they're usually in quite a bit of pain. Added to that, if they've never experienced chiropractic medicine before, they may be apprehensive or confused about what will happen during their first visit. At Kosak Chiropractic & Acupuncture in West Omaha, our goal is to relieve your pain in as few visits as possible, as well as to give you habits and tools to help avoid similar problems in the future.

This first visit is designed to let you and the Chiropractor get to know each other. He needs to find out about your medical and physical history, and you'll naturally have questions of your own. Your first chiropractic consultation won't be quick, but it will be thorough, giving the Chiropractor the information he needs to create a treatment plan especially for you.

Initial Health History Evaluation

Like all professional medical practitioners, our chiropractor can only treat you when he knows about your physical history. It's important for us to know if you've had similar problems in the past, and how you've dealt with them. What type of medical treatment did you seek, and what was the result? Is this a chronic problem, or one that's just recently appeared? Do you have any other chronic physical problems that might affect your health? Our Chiropractor will discuss these questions and more during the initial health history evaluation.

Patient History and Symptoms

When you first come into our office, you'll be asked to fill out forms that let us know about your medical history, as well as your current symptoms and physical problems. While most first-time chiropractic patients see us about back pain or neck pain, there is a wide range of physical problems that patients come to us seeking relief from.

When talking about your current problems, our Chiropractor will want to know how and where the pain started and where the pain is located. He'll ask you to describe the pain: is it sharp or dull, does it throb or burn, and is it constant or does it come and go? He'll want to know if the pain is a result of some type of injury and if there are some things you can do to make the pain come and go.

The Chiropractic Exam

Once our Chiropractor knows about your present physical problems, he'll give you a chiropractic exam to determine what may be causing them. He'll include general tests such as blood pressure, pulse, and reflexes, as well as neurological and orthopedic tests to determine

• The range of motion of the affected body part
• Your muscle strength
• Your muscle tone
• Your neurological integrity

The Chiropractor may do additional tests such as watching how you walk around the office, an analysis of your posture, and gentle chiropractic manipulation of the affected body part.

Diagnostic Tests

After Chiropractors study the results of the exam, our Chiropractor may need to do diagnostic studies to check for structural abnormalities that might be contributing to your condition. We don't always order diagnostic tests for every patient; they're only done when needed, depending on the patient's physical condition. When needed, the most common diagnostic studies we do in our office include:

• An x-ray examination
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan
• More elaborate diagnostic studies

Techniques and Therapies for Treatment

Once our Chiropractor finishes with your initial evaluation, he has a wide variety of techniques and therapies to call upon for your pain relief. After making a diagnosis, he will create an individualized treatment plan including a number of different techniques. Some of the more common therapies we use in our office include:

• Spinal adjustments
• Acupuncture
• Corrective exercises
• Lifestyle advice
• Orthopedic care
• Electrical muscle stimulation
• Intersegmental traction
• Nutritional counseling

The combination of the right choice of treatments will not only relieve your pain and stiffness, it will help to change your lifestyle, preventing the same physical problems from occurring again. Chiropractors focus on preventative style care and look to address the root problem of your condition through various methods of care.

Your First Visit to Our Chiropractor

Dealing with pain can be frustrating, especially when you're facing a medical specialty you've never had experience with before. At Kosak Chiropractic & Acupuncture in West Omaha, we believe that every patient should be educated in our approach to health before undergoing treatment. We take a holistic approach to good health, believing that if you make the entire body healthy, you won't have as many individual problems to treat. Our approach is mostly preventative, and we strive to keep all of our patients healthy with as few visits as possible. If you have any questions about chiropractic practice, or if you have need of pain relief today, call our office for a consultation. Contact us at (402) 964-0300 and we'll schedule an appointment with our Chiropractor in West Omaha for you today