Dermatomes: What are they and what do they tell your Osteopath?
Have you ever wondered how your Osteopath knows where all of your sore spots are? At Oak Tree Osteopathy in Boroondara we use a lot of different signs when examining your body to help us figure out why you are getting pain and where it is coming from.
One of those things are dermatomes.
Each spinal nerve has a corresponding area of skin that it supplies sensation to. This area of skin is called a dermatome. It is essentially a map indicating where these spinal nerves end up. This correlates with which part of the skin will be affected if there is something wrong with a particular nerve.
Dermatomes are clues to the origin of your pain
We use this map to give us clues about where your pain may be originating from. By touching the skin in different ways within a particular dermatome we can tell whether there is a problem with the nerve. This helps us diagnose the exact location of the injury.
Looking at the above picture, we can see how the spinal nerves are represented in corresponding areas on the skin throughout the whole body. These nerves send messages to the brain about sensations (such as temperature, pressure or pain) that come from that area of skin. There are 30 different dermatomes mapped out over our body!
This image shows the dermatomes again. This time, the body positioned on all fours. It is interesting how this arrangement lines up the dermatomes in a linear, more organised fashion. It certainly makes you think about evolution and the musculoskeletal system. The implications of the transition of humans from being quadrupedal (four footed) to being bipedal (two footed) are significant! More on this in another blog!
Dermatomes are the maps that show the destination of the spinal nerves
Each dermatome segment is labelled with the area of the spine that the nerve originates from. C stands for Cervical (or neck) vertebrae 2-8, T for Thoracic (mid back) vertebrae 1-12, L for Lumbar (low back) vertebrae 1-5 and S for Sacral (or tailbone) vertebrae 1-5.
This gives you an idea why if you have pain in the outside of your ankle, your osteopath will spend time assessing your low back. They will closely look at the area around your lower lumbar and sacral spine to see if there is a central problem that is causing or contributing to your ankle pain. Likewise, if you have pain, numbness or tingling in the outside of your arm we will be paying extra attention to the joints of the mid to lower neck.
How else does an Osteopath investigate and diagnose pain?
Assessing dermatomes are just one aspect of a thorough musculoskeletal examination. We take the information gained by this assessment and combine it with other testing. This develops a clinical diagnosis of your problem. Once we have a clinical diagnosis we can put together the best treatment and management plan to get you on the road to recovery!
If you think you might be having referred pain from a spinal nerve, book a consultation to have one of our osteopaths assess and diagnose your complaint.