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Auricular (Ear) -Therapy: seeds, needles, electro, or laser?
Auricular Therapy involves the stimulation of the “auricle” of the external ear for the treatment of health conditions in other parts of the body. It applies the principles of acupuncture to specific points on the ear, and can be done with less cost without the need for full treatment tables or private sessions.
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It is known as ear acupuncture or auricular acupuncture when the stimulation is achieved by the insertion of acupuncture needles. Specific points can also be stimulated by manual pressure, referred to as auricular acupressure or ear reflexology. This pressure can be facilitated with ear seeds or pellets that are secured by medical tape. Ear points can also be stimulated with infra-red laser or electricity, which are analogous to aculaser and electroacupuncture therapies for acupuncture points on the body.
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What does Auricular Medicine?
(According to http://www.earmedicine.us/about.html)
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Auricular Medicine is a highly developed system of diagnosis and treatment, discovering ailments anywhere in the human body by expertly examining the ear, which the well trained practitioner can accurately determine symptoms and root causes of diseases.
Auricular Diagnosis, unlike any other medical systems, auricular medicine can examine the physical conditions of a person in a very simple, low cost, but precise way. By checking different auricular points, one can get information about the health condition of a person. More importantly, it can also give the history information of the diseases and also predicts the potentials of certain diseases such as diabetes. Other medical systems are imprecise or complex, expensive, and time consuming.​
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What is a Auricular Treatment?
Ears have been used to treat diseases in China for more than 3000 years. Based on the Theory of "Reversed Embryo", ears reflect the condition of the human body. Auricular Points are the specific locations that corresponding to a part of the body. By stimulating the auricular points, we can treat the disharmony of its corresponding part(s). There are 16 important auricular treatment methods that have been developed, such as the Auricular Filiform Therapy, Auricular Electro-Acupuncture, and Auricular Point Injection Therapy. Among these, Auricular Seed Therapy, Auricular Massage, and Bleeding are the most commonly used in Auricular Medicine, because of their simplicity and efficiency.
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What is Auricular Seed Therapy?
This is also referred to as the "seed-pressure" method. It refers to applying a hard, smooth seed, herb, a pill or drug, or a magnetic pellet on tape, to a selected auricular point, and pressing it properly, to stimulate the point, to treat various diseases. It is the most popular treatment methods under development in the past 25 years.
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Auricular Seed Therapy was developed through Auricular Filiform Needling and Auricular Needle Imbedding Therapy. Even though Auricular Filiform Needling and Auricular Needling Embedding Therapy are very effective in treating many diseases; needle insertion undoubtedly produces pain, which scares away many a potential patient.
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Auricular Treatment, on the other hand, is safe and painless. The patient can even constantly stimulate him/herself by pressing the seeds attached to the acupoints.
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This method is very suitable for children, or those others who are afraid of pain, or who can not receive treatment everyday. Through clinical practice records, it has been confirmed that Auricular Seed Therapy is more acceptable by the patients, yet can achieve satisfactory therapeutic effects.
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Why choose Auricular Therapy: and which modality of ear seeds, acupuncture, laser, or electrostimulation is best?
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The answer is based on cost, effectiveness of treatment, and your personal preference:
If you are coming for a low cost tune up to help with stress or just feel your best, ear seeds can be a great option. Our community acupuncture clinic is very affordable since it allows people to come and pay on a sliding scale to get acupuncture in a group setting while reclining in a chair for an hour.
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However, if you are being treated for a significant and specific problem, we recommend you get a full session which does not focus on the ear per se. This permits a complete assessment and treatment to improve the results dramatically. Typically we use many modalities together, representing the broad strengths of our team. Often however, our acupuncturists will incorporate auricular points as an adjunct to the treatment. This approach of treating you is more effective and versatile to address your whole constitutional health. We suggest starting with a full session, and we’ll incorporate Auriculotherapy into your session to let you know what it’s about. If you are getting a full acupuncture session, ear seeds or electrostimulation of the ear can be included with no extra charge.
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We welcome patients who prefer or would like to experience ear acupuncture alone. Moreover, as your experience and knowledge of the impact of different types of treatment grows, you will know what works best — this is a central principle in our patient-centered practice. Some patients and children may not want to have needles inserted in their ears, so laser acutherapy and ear seeds are a great alternative that work too!
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What is Auricular Bleeding Therapy?
This is a method of treating disease by puncturing selected auricular point(s) with an auricular filiform needle, intradermal needle, etc.
This method is indicated to treat high fever and colonic convolutions due to fever, pain due to blood stasis, headache, dizziness and vertigo due to hyperactivity of liver yang, swelling and pain of conjunctiva, constipation, and dermatosis due to excessive heat of the lungs and large intestine.
Auricular Bleeding Therapy is extremely efficient in dredging the channels, promoting blood circulation by removing blood stasis, tranquilizing the mind, clearing away heat, and relieving inflammation and pain.
Thus, Auricular Treatment is very different from acupuncture because it does not penetrate the body and is basically painless. When the seeds remain on the ear for about a week, the patients can treat themselves, and thus better results can be obtained. This is a natural drug-free approach.
Auricular Treatment has been proven to be efficient in treating many diseases, including endocrine disease, and various pain symptoms.