One of the most common questions about acupuncture refers to the frequency of treatment. How many times each week should you go in for treatment? Although there’s no single answer to this question, there are a few things you should know about the general frequency of acupuncture treatments.
Why Does Frequency Matter?
If you want acupuncture to be effective, you need to use it the right way. That means choosing an experienced facility for your acupuncture in Miami, as well as choosing the right plan of care.
Without frequent enough treatment, your health can suffer. Acupuncture isn’t a one-time fix. Rather, it’s a long-term plan of care. Over time, you can space out your treatments. However, you might need frequent treatment at the start of your plan of care.
Typically, you experience relief of your symptoms after one treatment. Issues like chronic back pain are treatable with acupuncture. But that relief won’t last forever. You could relapse, only to experience the same symptoms you tried to relieve. With the right frequency of treatments, you can prevent a relapse.
Fortunately, you don’t need to determine your own plan of care. Your acupuncturist in Miami can guide you. When you go in for your first treatment, they take the time to learn about your symptoms. Then, they can come up with a plan that gives you the right amount of treatments.
How Often Do You Need Treatment?
If you are just starting out with treatment, you probably need acupuncture several times a week. However, it’s impossible to say exactly how often you need treatment. Every patient has different needs. While you might need treatment twice a week, another individual might need it three times a week.
Although that might seem like a big time commitment, it doesn’t need to be. Over time, the frequency decreases. Weekly treatment is usually necessary only for acute care.
Acute care refers to treatment of an illness or injury. For example, you would need acute care for a sprained ankle. The treatment would focus on helping you cope with the pain and healing your ankle. Because it is a serious injury, treatment would be aggressive.
Eventually, you graduate from acute care. The aggressive treatment is only for a short time. As you heal, you can decrease the frequency of acupuncture.
Changing the Frequency
When your acute care is done, you move on to transitional care. During this time, your acupuncturist aims to find out how frequently you need treatment. This stage tends to involve trial and error.
If you just stopped treatment after acute care, you could experience a return of your symptoms. In transitional care, you learn how long you can go between treatments. For instance, you might be able to go one month without experiencing ankle pain. In this case, you would benefit from monthly treatment.
Your transitional care is over when you and your acupuncturist find the right treatment frequency. After that, it’s all about upkeep. This is known as the maintenance care phase.
During maintenance care, you strive to maintain your health. This gives you enough acupuncture treatments to prevent your symptoms from coming back. In one situation, a person might benefit from treatment every four weeks. In another, they might need treatment every eight weeks.
Every individual needs a different plan of care. For that reason, you can’t know how many days a week you need acupuncture until you speak to your acupuncturist.