Dry needling is a medical procedure in which a medical professional inserts very fine, short, stainless steel filiform needles inside the pressure points or trigger points. These points are the tight bows in the muscles. These needles don’t contain any liquid inside. Nothing is injected inside the body through these needles. That’s why called dry needling. Dry needling is a compelling treatment. The primary aim of dry needling is to alleviate cramping and muscle pain and also boost the flexibility of the body.
Dry needling offers speedy results that other treatment methods. The needles when inserted, these invade through the muscles to obtain a twitch response. Patients may feel a little or pain as the muscles contract to the needle. It is an electric shock type feeling when the needle hits the trigger point. Dry needling is an alternative therapy also used to treat dysfunctions in connective tissue, fascia, and skeletal muscles. It helps restore and curtail the deteriorations of structure and function of the body resulting in enhanced activity.
RSI Phys Med has a team of experienced physical therapists. Their dry needling physical therapists are eminently trained and dedicated to quality and superior care for their patients. Dry needling is performed by physical therapists with the goal of appeasing or releasing trigger points to revamp the range of motion and relieve pain. Many types of research support that dry needling reduces muscle tension, improve pain control and establish dysfunction of the motor end plates where nerve impulses are transmitted to muscles.
Benefits of dry needling:
- Reduce pain
- Decrease muscle tension or spasm
- Improve muscle contraction
- Stimulate muscles
- Relax tight muscles
- Improve the range of motion
- Loosen sore and stiff muscles
Conditions that can benefit from dry needling are athletic performance, chronic pain, ligament sprains and muscular strains, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, knee pain, gluteal and hip pain, shoulder pain golfer’s elbow, migraines, joint dysfunction, disk pathology, tendonitis, phantom pain, nocturnal cramps, complex regional pain syndrome, post-herpetic neuralgia, urologic syndromes, pelvic pain, spinal dysfunction, whiplash associated disorders, computer-related disorders, carpal tunnel, tension-type headaches.
Effects of dry needling:
Mechanical effects: dry needling causes a local twitch response which results in a change of muscle fiber length and causes an avoidance effect on antagonistic muscles. Dry needling upsets the dysfunctional motor end plates.
Neurophysiological effect: dry needling excites a nerve fibers within 72 hours of the procedure. Nerve fibers are sensory afferent nerves. Extended provocation of these nerves may trigger the enkephalinergic inhibitory dorsal horn interneurons.
Risks associated with dry needling:
Usually, dry needling is considered safe if the practitioner is experienced and use a sterile needle for the treatment. Infected or unsterilized needles can cause the risk of contracting blood-borne pathogens. Some relatively common and mild risks associated with dry needling include bleeding at the treatment sites, bruising at or surrounding the sites and temporary soreness at the sites where needles are inserted. It efficiently helps speed up the return of a patient to active rehabilitation.
