If medication and physical therapy aren’t helping your chronic pain, you might look into alternative treatments. To relieve the muscle pain, your doctor may advise you to try a physical therapy technique known as dry needling.
Let’s go over how dry needling therapy works, why it works, and where you can find experienced practitioners who can provide you with this pain-relief treatment.
What Exactly Is Dry Needling?
Dry needling, also known as trigger-point needling, is a modern medical technique adapted from traditional Chinese medicine. It is called “dry” because no liquid or medication is used.
Unlike acupuncture, dry needling targets identified muscle trigger points that cause pain. The pain may be radiating to other areas of the body. Dry needling changes how your brain communicates with these muscles by interfering with nerves and relaxing muscle tension.
Your therapist will insert a hair-thin needle into a muscle’s trigger point where the pain is localized during dry needling. Your therapist will carefully and gently manipulate the needle to untangle your muscle and relieve your pain. The needle is removed, another difference from acupuncture, in which the needles remain in place for a certain length of time during the treatment session.
What Does Dry Needling Treat?
Dry needling therapy is commonly used as a complementary treatment for myofascial pain syndrome, a condition in which an oversensitivity in a muscle’s trigger point causes referred pain elsewhere in the body. A trigger point occurs when a muscle becomes contracted and will not relax.
Because they feel like bumps in your muscles, these points are also referred to as pain knots. Your circulatory system is impeded because of the contraction and tightness of these bumps in a muscle. Nutrients and oxygen cannot be delivered to your muscles properly.
Patients with myofascial pain syndrome may experience numbness as a result of this improper oxygen transport. Dry needling relaxes the affected muscles, allowing proper blood flow. The therapist will wiggle the dry needle in the trigger point, causing the muscle to relax.
Benefits of Dry Needling
Many patients report significant pain relief following dry needling. It is an effective treatment for migraine headaches, back pain, joint problems, and trigger-point therapy. Dry needling can also be used to treat nighttime leg cramps and repetitive-motion disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Dry Needling Therapy in Kearney, NE
The use of dry needling to treat chronic pain is becoming increasingly popular. Dry needling, physical therapy, and occupational therapy are available at Elite Health and Wellness in Kearney, NE, for patients recovering from surgery or trying to avoid surgery.
If you have any questions about one of our skilled and experienced physical therapists, please get in touch with us at (308) 455-1500 or fill out our simple appointment request form online. We hope to help you achieve a life without pain.
