Internal Medicine – When to See a Specialist

Sometimes when you have problems you need to see a specialist. Often times your regular physician can help you with most of your illnesses, but every now and then a problem stumps them and you might have to go see someone commonly called a “Doctor’s Doctor.” If you need to see one of these many specialists you might hear that you are visiting a Doctor of Internal Medicine.

Internal medicine is a wide spread medical specialty that deals with diagnosis, treatment and prevention of adult diseases. Occasionally you will find that some of these specialists have doctors that are available to pediatric patients but these are harder to find than adult specialists. These internist can act as a primary care physician but they are not considered to be general practitioners because they specialize in adult medicine, while a general practitioner might also see children.

You don’t have to have bleeding or damage to see a Doctor of internal medicine. The term probably alludes to the fact that there is a problem inside the body but that doesn’t mean you’ll always have to go under the knife. If you are seeing a Rheumatologist then you are seeing one of these specialized doctors and guess what you might not have to be operated on. For other disorders such as Cardiological, Neurological, and Oncological you might have to have surgery at some point. Just because you have a disease or disorder going on inside your body doesn’t mean that the doctor has to open you up.

This specialty covers so many more areas that you might not realize. IF you have problems with your hormones you’ll have to go see an Endocrinologist. If you have blood issues such as hemophilia, anemia, or sickle cell you will need to be referred to a Hematologist. Do you have problems breathing such as asthma, COPD or chronic bronchitis? If so then you will need to go see a Pulmonologist. There are many more types of physicians that are considered to be one of these types of doctors.

You don’t have to wait until you have a disease or disorder to see one of these doctors. It also works on preventing these problems. If your family history contains one or more of these problems such as heart problems, lung problems, or digestive problems your regular doctor might send you to see a specialist to ensure that everything is being done to prevent you from having these problems.Internal medicine is a wide field that allows you to get the specialized care you need.