What is dry needling?
Do you ever have muscle knots that are sensitive to touch and won’t go away no matter how hard you push on them or how much you stretch?
We call those muscle knots – trigger points.
I want you to picture trigger points a lot like Christmas lights; please bear with my metaphor. I would assume most of us have experienced the hassle of putting up or taking down Christmas lights right? No matter how careful you are they always get tangled! And they are SO DIFFICULT to straighten back out again.
Muscles act the same way – we can exercise, stretch, and do everything we can to take care of our body but our muscles can get knotted up anyway.
Dry needling is a skilled intervention using a thin, filiform needle, without injectate, to penetrate the skin in order to stimulate and effect change in underlying tissues.
What that means is that we use very thin needles (even thinner than what they use for vaccinations) to go through the skin to affect the underlying tissues including fascia, muscle, and even blood supply.
If it is indicated I will apply electrical stimulation to stimulate the muscle to assist the trigger point to release as well as reduce soreness post-treatment.
Does it hurt?
Needling can be uncomfortable since the needle does have to go into the skin to reach the muscle but the entire treatment will be done within a comfortable range.
Is dry needling right for you?
Dry needling is a great tool we use to relieve trigger points related to pain and to cause change in underlying tissue that may be necessary for healing but sometimes painful regions can be related to other underlying issues that need to be addressed.
There are few different options to determine this:
- We can schedule a free discovery visit for you where we can discuss your history and treatment options for you
- We can schedule a wellness visit where we can trial a 30-minute dry needling session on the area where you have concerned
- We can schedule a full physical therapy evaluation to determine if there are any underlying issues related to your trigger points that need to be addressed to give you long-standing relief
