Dry Needling…What’s the Hype About?

Jun 28

Dry needling is a very popular form of manual therapy that many practitioners are using in the clinic to help patients with pain relief.

So what exactly is dry needling?

Dry needling is a skilled manual therapy intervention that uses a thin filiform needle to treat pain and movement impairments/limitations. A “dry” (without medication or injection) needle is inserted into areas of the muscle that are restricting or causing pain.

The needles penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points and muscular and connective tissues for the management of neuromusculoskeletal pain and movement impairments.

Dry needling is a great way to safely get into muscles that are hard to get into with just hands. It can help with a variety of issues including:

Pain (Acute and Chronic)
Range of motion limitations
Increased sensitivity
Muscle tension
Nerve injuries
Muscle weakness
Recovery

You can use dry needling to help with a variety of “diagnoses” including:

Back pain
Neck pain
Headaches
Tinnitus
Jaw Pain/Dysfunction (TMD)
Sciatica or other nerve pain
Achilles tendonitis
Plantar Fasciitis
Hip/Knee/Foot/Ankle Pain
Shoulder and Elbow Pain
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Rotator Cuff Dysfunction
Scar Mobility

When we add electrical stimulation to the needles, it helps facilitate the process faster and provides lots of benefits including:

Improves pain pressure threshold
Improve post-needling soreness
Can reduce pain medication intake
Can improve pain, function, and sleep
Helps with neural tension and nerve regeneration
Creates greater sensory input to the brain
Helps with muscle atrophy
Improves athletic performance

If you have been on the fence about dry needling, or want to see if it can help you, message us! We want you to feel comfortable with it, but it is a GREAT tool to have for pain relief.

Lastly, at the end of the day, dry needling is a helpful tool to assist you with your rehab process and to make it faster. We use it as only one tool to help you with your recovery! If you are only getting dry needled, and you aren’t performing corrective exercises that are helping you with the root cause of your pain, you are missing the point! And your provider is as well.