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What is a physiotherapist?
Medical
conditions
Preventing pain at work
Injury
prevention
"Hot"
or "Cold" ?
Your first visit...
Submit
Clinical questions
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Orthopedics
Neck
pain | Low back pain
| Shoulder pain
| Hip pain
| Knee pain
| Ankle sprain
What will the physiotherapist do for me on
my first visit?
First you will undergo a thorough evaluation
of the neck to help your therapist determine the following:
- Pain behavior/pattern (what, where, when,
how intense)
- Your activity and postural habits as this
may influence your pain
- Screen for serious medical problem that might
require urgent medical attention and not physiotherapy attention.
- Establish the clinical diagnosis – find
the structure at fault for causing you neck or arm pain.
- Establish your goals of treatment
Two
parts to all good evaluations
History taking –
this will help your therapist get a good idea of your pain behavior
and establish a provisional clinical diagnosis before the physical
exam.
Physical Exam – systematically and
accurately determines the structure at fault.
- Posture – your posture
gives your therapist insight as to how you have been using your
spine in the past years. This posture may contribute to your
neck pain.
- Neck flexibility – you
will be asked to move your neck in 6 directions.
- Arm strength testing –
your therapist needs to pinpoint the weak muscle groups and
determine if your cervical spine works well.
- Sensation and reflex testing –
your therapist needs to find out if you have any numb areas
in your neck or arm to determine good functioning of your nerve
coming out of your cervical spine.
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