If your are going for your acupuncture treatment, this article helps you to get ready for your treatment in a way to gain more positive experience:
What to Wear
- Here at CCTCMA we would prefer patients to not wear makeup, or anything that covers your skins colour or condition. If you have dark circles under your eyes, avoid using anything to cover them up before your treatment. You can apply a facial cream or lotion if it has no scent. Your acupuncturist will need to assess your skins current condition and appearance. The natural features of your face are part of the TCM diagnosis; it will provide us with valuable information to make the correct diagnosis.
- We would prefer that our patients remove all bracelets, watches, or bands on your wrists. Your acupuncturist will need to feel your pulses on both wrists; also some treatments may require putting needles in your wrist area. As such, you may want to remove all wrist accessories before your treatment.
*Please Note: Due to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, pulse diagnosis will, for the duration of the pandemic, not be performed. We understand this may confuse and concern some about how accurate their diagnosis may be, but please rest assured that with the guidance of our TCM doctors, our interns will be fully capable of diagnosis none the less.
- Please avoid perfumed deodorants, perfumes etc., on the day of visit. Your body odour will also provide valuable information for TCM diagnosis.
What to Eat & Drink
- Please ensure that you eat something prior to your treatment. If you have not eaten for an extended period of time, please let your acupuncturist know. He/she will offer you a small cup of juice, sugar water, or even candies before they perform your treatment. If your blood sugar levels are low, you may experience dizziness during and after treatment.
- Please avoid coffee, and other coloured liquids and foods for a few hours before your treatment. Your tongue colour and the colour of your tongue coating are valuable diagnostic tools for your acupuncturist. For example, the yellow tongue coating and white tongue coating mean totally different symptoms in TCM.
- *Please Note: Due to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, tongue diagnosis will, for the duration of the pandemic, not be performed. We understand this may confuse and concern some about how accurate their diagnosis may be, but please rest assured that with the guidance of our TCM doctors, our interns will be fully capable of diagnosis none the less.
If it’s Your First Time…
- If this is your very first acupuncture treatment, please tell your acupuncturist. He/she will explain the acupuncture process in more depth.
- All of our student interns are overseen by one of our supervising TCM doctors. The TCM doctors will provide guidance to our student interns; however they will not be conducting direct supervision in the treatment rooms. If during your treatment you wish to request the presence of the overseeing TCM doctor, please voice this to your intern. If you feel that you may need assistance/ are experiencing an emergency, you are able to press our emergency response button, of which will be provided at the beginning of your treatment.
- If this is your first time to see an acupuncturist (you haven’t seen him/her for a long time, or you have just changed to another acupuncturist), please allow for an appointment length of approximately 1.5 hrs for your first treatment. Arriving 5-10 minutes before your appointment to fill in the intake forms is advised.
We hope that this article has shed some light on some of your questions and concerns about your upcoming treatment. However if you have addition queries outside of those presented here, please feel free to contact us at 403-287-8688, or leave a message here.