What is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a skilled technique performed by a Doctor or Physical Therapist using filiform needles to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying neural, muscular, and connective tissues for the evaluation and management of neuromusculoskeletal pain and movement impairments.
During treatment, the physical therapist inserts a very thin needle into the muscle, passing through layers of tissue to reduce muscular spasms, decrease pain, increase mobility, and restore function.
At New Hampshire NeuroSpine Institute, we practice an evidence-based approach in order to give our patients the best possible long-term outcomes. According to Dr. James Dunning, unlike acupuncture, dry needling “does not attempt to move qi (chi) along a meridian, nor does it rely on diagnosis from traditional Chinese acupuncture or Oriental medicine.”
Why would I consider Dry Needling as part of my care?
Dry needling is a unique part of a care plan that can help speed up a patient's return to active rehabilitation.
If you have an injury and are finding that you are having difficulty making progress with exercise, stretching and traditional manual therapy techniques; Dry needling can be used to effect the tissues of the body in a way that other therapies can not. Dry needling can be used to help normalizes dysfunctions of the motor end plates, the sites at which nerve impulses are transmitted to muscles.
WHAT IS DRY NEEDLING USED FOR?
Trigger Points
Trigger points are discrete, focal, hyperirritable spots located in a taut band of skeletal muscle. These points can be painful at the location that they exist or they can refer pain into extremities in a specific pattern. Trigger Points are typically associated with chronic musculoskeletal disorders.
Dry needling trigger points results in a reduction of the silent contractions that form the hyperirritable spots in muscles that can refer pain.
WHAT IS DRY NEEDLING USED FOR?
Chronic Tendinopathies
When there is a dysfunction of the tendon over a very long period of time and the areas are not responding to anti-inflammatory treatments we no longer classify these conditions as what is commonly known as tendonitis. This this is because “itis” would imply the area is inflamed.
Dry needling chronic dysfunctional tendons can assist in increasing blood flow and stimulating cellular process deep within fibrotic tissues creating a restorative response at musculotendinous and teno-osseous junctions. Where the muscle meets the tendon or where the tendon meets the bone.
WHAT IS DRY NEEDLING USED FOR?
Peripheral Pain and Central Pain
Dry needling can decrease the pain threshold and effect the expansion of sensory receptive fields is known as central sensitization or “chronic pain.”
What can you expect with dry needling?
Patients often notice immediate muscular relaxation accompanied by an increase in range of motion contributing to pain relief. During the treatment the goal is to elicit temporary reproduction of symptoms with involuntary muscular twitching. Patients often refer to this as a dull ache. This only lasts for a few moments while the needle is left in the muscle. These symptoms are desirable as they are not necessary, but known to increase the effectiveness of the treatment. Soreness may last up to 24 to 48 hours, however pain relief may last even longer.
Conditions Treated with Dry Needling
Conditions that have the most evidence to support use of dry needling include: osteoarthritis, headaches, cervical pain syndromes, in addition to nerve irritation potentially caused by disc herniation or other spine pathology.
Common indications:
1. Pain that may not have resolved through traditional treatment methods
2. Cervical Thoracic and Lumbar Pathologies
- a. Unresolved neurologic symptoms, neuropathies
- b. Degenerative changes / Osteoarthritis
- c. Facet or Sacroiliac Arthropathy
- d. Disc bulges/herniations
- e. Spinal stenosis
- f. Nerve root entrapments “pinched nerves”
- g. Sciatica
3. Headaches and migraines
4. Chronic muscular tightness
5. Chronic pain: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
6. Sports and overuse injuries
7. Hand & Foot pain syndromes
8. Temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) Disorders
9. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
If you are interested in learning more about dry needling, or would like to know if one of our trained therapists thinks that dry needling can help you, feel free to contact us using the below form.
Address
Bedford, NH - Main Office
4 Hawthorne Drive Bedford, NH 03110
- Telephone:
- 603-472-8888
- E-mail:
- info@nhneurospine.com