When muscles get overworked-either from prolonged postures, injury, increased activity, repetitive motions, etc. they can develop knots or trigger points. These are tight painful areas in the muscle with decreased blood flow and increased inflammatory properties. These trigger points can disrupt function, restrict range of motion, refer pain, or cause local tenderness. Dry needling is a skilled intervention that uses a thin filiform needle (similar to an acupuncture needle) to stimulate deeper myofascial trigger points, scar tissue, and/or fascia. This causes a twitch response which can decrease banding or tightness, improve blood flow and oxygenation, and reduce local and referred pain when applied to dysfunctional muscles or trigger points. It can also enhance a muscle's range of motion, strength, and reaction time. Patients often report immediate relief after treatment. The needles remain in your muscle for a short period of time — between 10 seconds and 20 minutes — during treatment.
Treatment is often followed up by exercise to those same muscles to help promote further strength and range of motion gains.
We can dry needle almost every muscle in the body. Research has proven this to be a safe and effective way to treat muscle pain and dysfunction.
If you are interested in trying dry needling, give the office a call! Our clinicians have gone through over 100 hours of additional training to safely provide this service to our patients.
