Skills of Oriental Medicine Practitioner

Chinese medicine practitioners use very meticulous skills in the assessment of patient’s health. By observation on facial complexion, skin temperature, color, moisture and color of ear, TCM practitioners can grasp first hand ideas on patient’s health status – “which system is out of order?” Like an experienced gardener. The experienced gardener will immediately know which crops of apple are crispy sweet by touching, rubbing the skin, smelling the aroma of apples without cutting the apples. Therefore, it is very common for patient asking, “Oh, how can you know me so well just by first visit?” The TCM diagnostic skills are so unique and passed down from Chinese Classics thousands of years ago. Modern medical doctors use stethoscope to listen to patient’s lung, use thermometer to check patient’s temperature. Oriental medicine doctors also utilize western tools (thermometers and stethoscope etc). We utilize FOUR methods to investigate cause of disease. These FOUR methods are Inquiring, Palpation, Visual Inspection, and Listening/Smelling. Palpation involves touching different areas of skin/muscles to assess its temperature, tenderness, or level of dryness. Visual inspection refers to observing patient’s facial expression, practitioners assess the person’s level of ‘spirit’ – facial complexion and speech clarity. For example, Person with lung problem would have white pale hue, whereas kidney problem will manifest darker hue. We also use skills of listening and smelling to determine which organ is out of balance. For example, Strong body odor indicates liver heat (eating too much greasy food, indulge of alcohol or deprived of sleep). By checking nails, pulses on both wrists can also deliver valuable information of health status. For example, person with a fast, strong pounding pulse with a red face and thick greasy coating tongue tend to be more short-circuited of personality, with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In Ancient time of China, when pregnancy urine strips were not invented yet, TCM practitioners even could use pulse diagnostics to check if ladies are pregnant or not.

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