Osteopathy Myth-Buster

As osteopaths, part of our job is to promote osteopathy to the masses. We do a lot of this by word of mouth, and we rely on our patients to also spread the word after they’ve received a successful treatment here at Grassroots Healthcare. We and other osteopathic clinics also make use of the internet to help market and advertise our services. Despite all of our efforts, common misconceptions exist about osteopathy. We'd like to take this opportunity to debunk some of these myths now:

“Osteopathy… that’s backs isn’t it?”

One of the most common misconceptions out there is that osteopaths just treat back pain. Whilst back pain is the number one complaint that most osteopaths see daily, we treat pain all over the body. Osteopaths can treat a wide range of conditions including headaches, neck and shoulder pain, arthritic pain, hip, knee and ankle pain, as well as other conditions like vertigo, sciatica and pregnancy-related pain. If you need help with pain but are not sure if we can help, call us today on 5543 4254 and we will discuss it with you over the phone.

“Osteopaths just treat bones”

You can be forgiven for thinking that an osteopath would specialise in treating bones. After all, the word ‘osteo’ translates from classical Greek into ‘bone’. Osteopathy founder, Andrew Taylor Still, even used to advertise his services as a ‘bonesetter’ (a person who would relocate dislocations and fractures). So, anyone who has done a bit of reading around the history of osteopathy may have come across these phrases and be led down the wrong path. But times have changed, and one of the fundamental principles of osteopathy is that the body is a unit. It is one being that needs to be treated as a whole in order to get well again. Yes, we treat problems associated with the bones, but we also treat joints and muscles and more. But when we treat these areas, we are treating all of the systems of the body. Our treatments aim to affect the blood, nerves and other connected systems in the body to restore balance and promote health. So in a nutshell, we treat all parts and systems of the body – not just bones!

“Osteos, physios and chiros are the same”

We commonly get asked what the difference is between osteopathy and other therapies like physiotherapy an