Dry Needling
What is dry needling?
Dry needling is a powerful therapy involving insertion of a thin filament (aka needle) into soft tissue such as muscles, tendons or ligaments for the purpose of reducing muscle spasm, trigger points and/or pain. Dry needling is virtually painless for most patients and the risk of infection is minimal.
Who can benefit from dry needling?
Much of the myofacial pain experienced by our patients results from trigger points. Trigger points are focal areas of a muscle that are tight and hyper-sensitive. They can actively produce pain or will produce pain with movement, stretching or contraction of the muscle. Since trigger points are present in virtually all muscluloskeletal conditions, dry needling is a power treatment option for almost anyone. It is very popular with athletes as well as regular people just trying to live a pain-free life.
What are some common conditions that can be treated with dry needling?
- Sciatica
- Shoulder Impingement
- Low Back Pain
- Achilles Tendonitis
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Tennis Elbow
- Golfer’s Elbow
- IT-Band Syndrome
- Headaches
- TMJ
What is the difference between acupuncture and dry needling?
Acupuncture is an ancient form of medicine from Asia. It is an eastern form of medicine. As such it uses a completely different set of diagnostic criteria to establish the appropriate treatment and has a completely separate set of diagnoses. Also, acupuncture will treat a wide variety of conditions from smoking addiction to gastric reflux.
Dry needling uses the same needles as acupuncture. However, dry needling is typically used to treat trigger points and tight muscles. Dry needling is a western form of medicine and, therefore, will use the same diagnoses as you would hear from your primary care physician. In most cases, dry needling is used to treat musculoskeletal conditions such as sciatica or shoulder impingement. While dry needling is different from acupuncture, they are both powerful, conservative treatment options for patients.