Frequently Asked Questions
Does Acupuncture Hurt?
Most of the time you won’t feel anything. Every once and a while you might feel a slight pinch, but this dissipates quickly. Other things you will feel are: a heaviness around the needle, a tingling, ants crawling across the skin, or absolutely NOTHING! Most of my patients fall asleep during treatment, it’s very relaxing.
The needles I use are single use, sterilized, solid, stainless steel needles. The size I use is anywhere from .16mm-.25mm. The average sized medical syringe is 28.5mm, so much bigger than an Acupuncture needle.
How Many Treatments do i need?
The amazing thing about Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine is that it’s tailored to you. There is no way for me to know prior to your first visit. After your first visit, I will be able to give you a treatment plan which will tell you how often and how long I want to see you. This is my best guess about what will need to be done in order to get the best results. However, everyone is different and responds differently to treatment. Treatments always start at a minimum of 1-2x per week. Commitment is the best sign of future success.
Things that work in your favor:
If the onset of the condition is recent
If you are otherwise fairly healthy
If you don’t take many prescription medications
If you are young and active
If you don’t fit in any of these categories, don’t lose hope. You will most likely still get great benefits from treatment, it may just take longer to heal your body.
What does Acupuncture and Oriental medicine treat?
The answer is, we treat the person, not just the condition. This is the opposite of what you get when you go to a Western MD. We grow up thinking it’s normal to see different doctors for different parts of the body. In Oriental Medicine we take the entire picture of the person into consideration. All of the symptoms your having, what you’re eating, the type of constitution you have: all these things matter to us. It is truly a Holistic Medicine. So when you think about it from that perspective, there isn’t much we can’t treat.
However, Dr Niemeyer does have specialties: Women’s Health and Chronic Illness. Since Dr Niemeyer has spent so much time honing her skills in these areas we have decided that we will no longer accept Orthopedic Patients. Orthopedics is its own specialty and we believe that you would do better with a practitioner who specializes in physical pain. Back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, knee pain would all fall under orthopedic issues. We are happy to continue to treat patients with pain like Headaches, Migraines, and Period Pain because from our perspective they fall more under Internal Medicine.
We are not a Pediatric Clinic. However, in the past the youngest patient we have treated was 11 years old. We require all patients under 18 years old to meet the following requirements:
The child must consent to treatment. There are so many situations in which children are forced to have needle experiences, we do not wish to treat any child that doesn’t agree with treatment. We want all our patients to have positive experiences.
The child must be able and willing to lay still for the 30 minutes of needle retention.
The child must be able to take herbs or supplements in the form of swallowing pills.
The parent of any child under 18 must be accompanied by their parent and the parent must sign the consent form on behalf of the child. For children who can drive themselves from 16-18 the parent must come to the first visit and must discuss whether appropriate to have them come alone to subsequent treatments.
Do you Treat Children?
Dr Niemeyer primarily treats according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), she has also studied Five Element Acupuncture. Dr Niemeyer has a blend of needling techniques, she uses Japanese needles which makes them sharper and not as painful as the thicker and more blunt Chinese needles. However, she’s not as aggressive as most Chinese Acupuncturists, and does not only do shallow insertion like Japanese Acupuncturists. All Acupuncturists are a blend of their training and experience, so it’s difficult to put Dr Niemeyer into just one category. Her priority is getting results but also not making it a painful experience for her patients.
What Type of Acupuncture Does Dr Niemeyer Practice?
No, we are not “in network” with any insurance company. We can provide you a Superbill, after you pay us, so that you may try to get reimbursed from your insurance company. Getting reimbursed by a Superbill is unlikely unless you have out of network coverage.
We do accept Heath Savings Account Cards, these cover the entire treatment price and are a great way to use that benefit.
