For Patients

A patient’s first appointment lasts 80–90 minutes. During this time, we discuss your conditions and health goals, review your medical history, conduct a diagnostic analysis that includes an Acugraph, and complete your first acupuncture treatment. In many cases, we also provide general dietary, nutritional, and herbal recommendations during your initial visit, depending on your medical needs and symptoms.

Follow-up treatments last 50–60 minutes. During these sessions, we’ll review your progress, discuss any new health or wellness challenges you may be experiencing, conduct an Acugraph for comparison to previous results, and introduce new treatment techniques if needed. We typically recommend a treatment plan that includes sessions either once or twice a week at first. As specific conditions and overall health improve, we typically transition to biweekly sessions and then monthly sessions once a consistent level of wellness or symptom alleviation has been established.

During an acupuncture treatment, patients lie down on a massage table either faceup or facedown, depending on the acupuncture points that are being targeted. The decision to wear clothing or undress is entirely up to the patient. We provide privacy sheets in each treatment room, but many patients prefer to wear clothes during treatment. If they are sufficiently loose-fitting, shirts, pants, and other types of clothing will likely not interfere with the treatment process as long as our practitioners can access the elbows, knees, abdomen, back, or other targeted areas of the body.

Once the patient is comfortable, we begin needle insertion. Because the needles are so thin, and we want the experience to be as painless as possible, we use guide tubes that help us ensure a smooth, gentle, and quick insertion into the skin.

When the needles are inserted, patients may experience a sensation of pulling or throbbing at the acupuncture point, which is a sign that qi has been activated. Many patients come to enjoy and even look forward to this sensation over the course of multiple treatments. In classical Chinese medicine texts, the feeling is compared to the sensation of a fish getting hooked on a fishing line—a quick, energizing tug. The needling process happens very quickly, and it’s not uncommon for us to hear a surprised reaction from new patients: “Wait, that’s it?! I didn’t even know you finished!!”

We typically insert between 15–20 needles during a routine acupuncture session. After all the needles are inserted, patients relax and rest with the needles in place for 30–40 minutes, depending on the specific treatment and circumstances. Most people will fall asleep during this period, and we provide a bell that patients can ring if they need us. According to the classical texts, it takes about 28 minutes for qi to circulate fully throughout the body, so we like to leave needles in for at least that long.

We carefully remove and discard the single-use needles at the end of the acupuncture treatment. At this time, we might perform complementary techniques such as moxibustion, gua sha, or cupping. If these techniques are going to be used during a visit, we always discuss the plan with patients in advance.

During follow-up sessions, we review and discuss any changes in condition that might have occurred since the last treatment. The acupuncture points we use may change from session to session based on several factors, such as the speed or extent of treatment progress or the manifestation of new medical conditions or symptoms.

Patient safety is our top priority and we take it very seriously here at Village Acupuncture. We have a comprehensive system of policies that ensures patient safety during every treatment, every day. We follow strict sanitation protocols for handwashing, equipment sterilization, and treatment-room cleaning, needle disposal, linen laundering, and air quality—our rooms utilize HEPA air-filtration systems. In addition, all of our practitioners are trained and certified in Clean Needle Technique (CNT), and we only utilize the highest quality single-use needles on the market.

Village Acupuncture follows the same strict patient privacy and confidentiality laws, rules, and regulations used by hospitals and other healthcare providers. Our secure patient information systems are fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and we do not share patient information with any third parties, including other medical providers, without written permission from a patient. New patients fill out a HIPAA privacy form and consent form before their first treatment.

We accept cash, check, or credit card payments at the time of service. For people without insurance coverage, the cost for the initial treatment is $150 and all follow up visits are $90. We include acupuncture with red light therapy in this price.

We also accept payments from Health Savings Accounts (HSA) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), which can be used to cover acupuncture treatments and other medical services or expenses.

More and more insurance companies are including acupuncture in their coverage plans and benefits. Village Acupuncture is in network with all of the major insurance companies, and we are always willing to confirm whether a patient’s particular plan offers full or partial coverage.

We want every patient to understand what their health insurance will or won’t cover, so we ask new patients to submit insurance information, including a photo of their insurance card, through our online scheduling platform at least 72 hours before a scheduled appointment. When we receive required insurance information in advance, we provide patients will a clear understanding of their insurance coverage, including any required co-payments or deductible implications.

Patients can schedule appointments using our online scheduling system, by calling our office at 207.370.0344, or by sending us an email to hello@villageacu.com.

We ask that patients provide at least 24 hours of notice if they need to cancel an appointment, which gives us enough time to offer the appointment to a patient on our waiting list. With the exception of illness or emergency, no-shows and appointments that are canceled with less than 24 hours of notice are charged $25 for the missed appointment. Subsequent missed appointments will be charged the full price of the scheduled treatment.

After an acupuncture treatment, we strongly recommend that patients avoid strenuous activity for at least six hours. Ideally, we want our patients to plan ahead so they can have a relaxed and restful day that does not include strenuous physical work or exercise.

We make sure to tell every patient that acupuncture is usually a slow medicine—it works more like exercise than Tylenol, and noticeable improvements in medical conditions or overall health can take time to materialize. Some patients experience a noticeable improvement in symptoms after only one or two treatments, but it may take a few weeks or months for other patients.

The treatment duration will differ for each patient and condition, so we can only provide general estimates to new patients based on our past experience with patients suffering from similar medical problems or symptoms. Some patients choose to get treatments until they experience a significant reduction in symptoms, while others prefer to establish a regular treatment routine that they continue for multiple years.

Here’s the general rule: If a patient’s condition can improve, acupuncture and Chinese medicine can likely help.

For conditions that cannot be improved, such as permanent paralysis or physical disfigurement, acupuncture and other applications of Chinese medicine are not recommended. For many severe conditions that can be improved, however, acupuncture often helps, but it may need to be administered in conjunction with other medical interventions. For example, acupuncture would not be used as a primary treatment for cancer, but it can help support cancer recovery and relieve post-operative symptoms.

The most common medical conditions we treat are pain, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, digestive problems, fertility issues, and hormonal symptoms, but we also successfully treated a wide range of other physiological, musculoskeletal, and neurological conditions. During a patient’s first consultation or appointment, we discuss the most likely benefits and limitations of acupuncture and other forms of treatment.

As you might imagine, this is one of the most common questions we get!

When people hear the word “needles,” they imagine the hypodermic needles used to deliver shots or take blood, but acupuncture needles are nothing like the thick, hollow needles they might have feared as children.

At Village Acupuncture, we use only the highest-quality needles on the market: Seirin needles manufactured in Japan. Single-use acupuncture needles are solid, sterile, flexible, and as thin as human hair, and high-quality needles such as those manufactured by Seirin are far less likely to cause discomfort than cheaper, lower-quality needles.

While acupuncture is either virtually or entirely painless, people do experience different sensations when needles are inserted, which some patients describe as a “tingling” or “pulling” sensation. In some cases, patients will feel a slight ache or spreading warmth at the insertion point. When inserting needles into particularly sensitive acupuncture points on the hands or feet, the sensation can sometimes feel like a small pinch, but it is always brief. Many patients even enjoy and look forward to the needling sensation, and most people experience a deep feeling of calm or relaxation that has been compared to a daydream state after the needling process is completed.

When patients are nervous about needles, we talk patients through the process, answer their questions, and utilize a variety of techniques to make the experience as comfortable and stress-free as possible.

The decision to wear clothing or undress is entirely up to the patient. We provide privacy sheets in each treatment room, but many patients prefer to wear clothes during treatment. If they are sufficiently loose-fitting, then shirts, pants, and other types of clothing will likely not interfere with the treatment process as long as our practitioners can access the elbows, knees, abdomen, back, or other targeted areas of the body.

Yes! At Village Acupuncture, we welcome collaborative relationships with a wide range of healthcare providers. We believe strongly in an integrative, team-based approach to healthcare, and we routinely work with many of the top medical providers in the area—from chiropractors and physical therapists to medical doctors and naturopaths to psychiatrists and mental health counselors.

Many people believe that Chinese medicine and Western medicine are incompatible systems, but we believe that each approach has its strengths and benefits. Neither tradition provides all the answers or works in every case, and we know that a blend of Chinese and Western medicine can be advantageous when treating many medical conditions and symptoms.

At Village Acupuncture, our sole objective is to develop an individualized treatment plan that will make every patient feel better. While the majority of our patients have a positive experience, some medical conditions and symptoms are more complicated than others. If we don’t see the improvement we would either like or expect to see, we are honest and upfront with our patients. We know and work with many of the top medical providers in the area, so we can provide recommendations and referrals that will help our patients get the medical care they need.