In Dry Needling practice, an acupuncture needle is inserted into a local area of muscle tension called a “Trigger Point”. Unlike traditional acupuncture, the treatment method in Dry Needling is strictly based on the anatomy of muscles and/or nerve pathways effected.
The primary goal of Dry Needling is to desensitize supersensitive structures, to restore motion and function and to possibly induce a healing response to the tissue. For seasoned practitioners, Dry Needling is extremely beneficial for quick and tangible results on top of other movement remediations.
Dry Needling is completely different from Acupuncture. Dry Needling is technique to treat the neuromusculoskeletal systems based on pain patterns, muscular dysfunction, and other orthopedic signs and symptoms which depends upon physical examination and assessment to guide the treatment. Acupuncture is a technique for balancing the Flow of Energy or Life Force, known as Qi or Chi, believed to flow through meridians, pathways, in your body.
Dry Needling is becoming a popular modality in medical practices, as musculoskeletal complaints are one of the most reported conditions to seek medical attention.
Musculoskeletal diseases affect more than one out of every two persons in the United States age 18 and over, and nearly three out of four age 65 and over. Trauma, back pain, and arthritis are the three most common musculoskeletal conditions reported, and for which health care visits to physicians’ offices, emergency departments, and hospitals occur each year. (6) This increase in occurrence of musculoskeletal pain is causing people to search for good manual therapists with a plethora of modalities, including Dry Needling, to fix their pain quickly.
According to Kinetacore, the primary goal of Dry Needling is to desensitize supersensitive structures, to restore motion and function and to possibly induce a healing response to the tissue. This goal of treatment will allow you to treat and help a broad spectrum of patients from Chronic Pain Syndrome to MS (Multiple Sclerosis) to Sprain/Strain Injuries (The list could go on).
A Dry Needling Therapist can “feel” with the needle and utilize it as a diagnostic instrument. Dry Needling is often extremely helpful as tight muscles, contractures and trigger points are invisible to X-rays, MRI, CT’s. Contractures deep in the muscles can be felt with the needle via feedback on the quality of the tissues that it is penetrating. I utilize Dry Needling as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool similar to the Graston Technique. From a manual therapist standpoint, it is amazing what you can “feel” in the tissue when you have a needle extending through the deep layers of muscle and fascia. When I penetrate through chronic and fibrotic tissue, it feels very “gooey” to me. It feels very similar to some old school Silly Putty. I can tell that this is an area of muscle amnesia that needs to be woken up, stimulated and re-educated.