What is dry needling?
“Dry needling is a technique used in which a thin sized needle enters a hyper irritable zone within your muscle, otherwise known as a trigger point or in simpler terms a muscle spasm, with the aid of breaking down the muscle spasm in order to relax the muscle and decrease the pain”.
A trigger point is made up of contracted muscle fibers that are just not relaxing, a build of concentrated waste products and lack of blood flow to the area. This eventually leads to referral and local pain within the area and are related to common conditions such headaches, lower back pain, piriformis syndrome or “sciatica” and varies other conditions.
Dry needling aids to relax those contracted muscle fibers by sending a rush of blood flow to the area, which rinses all the concentrated waste products out, allowing the muscle fibers to relax. Think about the effects of a sports massage, but on a much greater scale. Dry needling is one of the single most useful and effective techniques used when it comes to treating muscle and tendon related pain or conditions.
While it can be uncomfortable initially when the needle enters the targeted area, it usually subsides within minutes after and you’ll forget the needle was even in you. Post tenderness after the needles is a common post treatment symptom and is completely normal. Heat application followed by some light stretches of the targeted muscle group is the best thing to do after a session of dry needling as it reduces any post tenderness. Effects of the dry needling are usually felt immediately after the
session, where once the post tenderness has subsided, in a day or two it will leave you feeling really great. Usually with stubborn areas, a few dry needling sessions are required to completely resolve the problem.
Is acupuncture and dry needling the same thing?
For some this may come as a surprise but no, it is not the same thing. Well both modalities use the same needles, acupuncture is the practice of traditional Chinese medicine and are based on pressure points along the meridian lines of the body in order to restore normal energy flow and thus improving health, allowing natural healing to occur. These points are often located near or closer to the skin surface although some points are located deeper and may require the needle to be inserted closer to the muscle depending on the condition being treated. It can be used to treat conditions relating but not limited to chronic musculoskeletal pain, sinusitis, digestive and respiratory problems. Dry needling on the other hand is a more direct and physiological response and pierces to enter trigger points or tender bands that are located within a muscle in order to elicit a response and allow muscle relaxation to occur. Dry needling is only used to treat conditions that are associated with muscular and tendon related pain.
