Dry Needling

Dry Needling (DN) is a treatment technique that utilizes thin, solid filament needles designed to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying neural, muscular and connective tissues. Dry Needling evokes a healing response in painful neuromusculoskeletal conditions and improves movement impairments.

Patients with the following symptoms may benefit from Dry Needling:

• Neck pain
• Muscle strains
• Repetitive stress injuries
• Tendinitis/-nosis
• Adhesive capsulitis
• Knee pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Low-back pain
• Si joint dysfunction
• Plantar faciitis
• Headache
• Chronic pain
• Decreased mobility

How Does It Work?

When a needle tip hits a trigger point, a characteristic local twitch response (LTR) in the muscle is noted by the clinician and the patient. This local twitch response is involuntary. It has been shown that the elicitation of local twitch responses is one of the important aspects in obtaining a successful therapeutic outcome for trigger point deactivation. Dry Needling may mechanically disrupt the contracted nature of the trigger point.

Is Dry Needling Similar to Acupuncture?

Dry Needling is a modern, science-based intervention for the treatment of pain and dysfunction in musculoskeletal conditions. Acupuncture is based on a ‘meridian map’ and the needle only penetrates the skin, whereas dry needling is based on the anatomic map and penetrates into muscle. Dry Needling is not acupuncture or Oriental Medicine; that is, it does not have the purpose of altering the flow of energy (“Qi”) along traditional Chinese meridians for the treatment of disease.