Every applicant say they love it......soooo??
But seriously, I think students pick and chose what they like about OMM and use that. Some lied their way into DO school and just want to use a prescription pad regardless of their degree. There are aspects of OMM that make you scratch your head, no doubt. But this is not the entirety of OMM, not even a third. Then there are others aspects of the OMM course, like ortho exam and gait, all mainstays of orthopaedics Muscle energy, HVLA, counterstrain, trigger point therapy, and exercise prescription, all are used by physical therapists. PM &R , and Pain docs. OMM doesnt get a fair shake on SDN because of cranial and Chapman points ,which only encompass a relatively small portion of OMM class. The ones who rant about OMM being pseudoscience will cheerfully send a patient to physical therapy to be treated with the same pseudoscience. Go figure. So, to answer OPs question, I would hazard about half of DO students would consider using any OMM in practice if they saw the need and practicing DOs actually use way less than that. There are studies looking at this.
This is mostly due to time, you have about 7 min per patient, and cost. You cannot bill for comprehensive evaluation AND a procedure for the initial patient visit. OMM profs will mislead you into believing there are somatic dysfunctions everywhere. In reality, it is an infrequent case where a purely OMM issue brings a patient into your office. When you see one, you will look like a rock star when the patient walks out feeling better. It's mostly a different perspective in which you consider, evaluate, and treat patients.Way too much bandwidth used on this topic IMO, but I think this needed to be said. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this by the Self Loathers as
@Goro describes, but I've got my asbestos whitey tighties on, just in case.
