In the past the biomedical model has been the traditional way of looking at musculoskeletal diagnosis.  For some conditions this is very useful.  An example of this is if you injured your knee whilst playing sport and then have an ultrasound which demonstrates a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.  The imaging matches and explains the injury and allows direction of appropriate management.

Back pain has been a real challenge to the biomedical model as less than 15% of low back pain (LBP) can be explained using conventional objective medical tests and imaging.  This has lead to the development of a new model – the functional approach.

This involves looking at the way you move, the things that cause you pain and the quality of movements and postures to determine not only what is the pain generator in your case, but why that structure has become pain sensitive.

At 100% Health we recognise the importance of both approaches.  The biomedical approach guides our initial assessment of your presentation to determine if there is a pathological diagnosis that can be treated.  If this can not be found, or if this does not completely explain your presentation we will then embark on a full functional assessment, tailored to your particular activities of daily living, to enable us to find out where the pain is coming from and why.  If you’re not in pain, the functional assessment is also an excellent way of evaluating the quality of your movements and allows us to tailor a treatment and rehab program to balance your body and avoid injuries.  This approach also takes into consideration risk factors for your problem becoming chronic and allows us to target treatment specifically to avoid this. 

In treatment terms this means that we spend longer with you during initial consultations, so that we can get a really good picture of your unique body structure and function, and return consultations usually involve some reassessment of your movement sensitivities and prescription of rehab exercises. 

The difference for you in treatment from this approach that you wont just be treated, you’ll be educated, empowered and encouraged to become more involved in the management of your condition. You are an essential partner in a much more collaborative relationship with your practitioner.