DRY NEEDLING IS A WAY TO RELAX THE MUSCLE, INCREASE BLOOD FLOW, AND REDUCE PAIN.

Dry needling (DN) stimulates the body to heal unlike other therapies. It has been shown to reduce pain, improve blood flow, and reduce inflammation. We are trained in Integrative Dry Needling a comfortable and safe dry needling approach that focuses on treated the system to get your feeling your best again.

What does it feel like?

Dry needling utilizes a single use, sterile, monofilament needle.  This needle is very thin.  It is not hollow like the ones you are thinking of at the doctor.  Because they are so thin, in most areas you will barely feel anything, especially when applied with proper technique.  In areas where you have pain you will get this deep, dull ache sensation. It's much like the feel of deep massage or trigger point work.  This ache sensation is a good thing. It means your therapist is near the area where your pain lives.  Very rarely you will get a brief sharp or tingling sensation. Your therapist will make adjustments to quickly relieve any discomfort.  Some people will get post treatment soreness.  It feels a lot like the delayed onset post workout soreness you may get with new exercise.  This is your immune system reacting to the treatment.  This initial response will trigger an anti-inflammatory cascade in the area that we are treating that should lead to healing and pain reduction! 

How does it work?

While there are many proposed mechanisms the three we discuss most are reduced muscle tightness, increased blood flow, and reduced inflammation.

1. Decreased Muscle Tightness

   • When you have pain, often the muscles around the area will tighten in order to protect the injured site. This in itself can be very painful, almost like a cramp or Charlie horse type pain. Dry Needling can help break the nerve stimulus that is causing the muscle guarding and allow the muscles to relax.

2. Increased Blood Flow

   • With muscle tightness, comes a reduction in blood flow. If I can’t enough blood and/or oxygen to an area, the muscles are going to fatigue and fatigue brings on pain. Dry needling has been shown to increase oxygenation in an area for up to 15 minutes.

3. Decrease Inflammation

   • We all know that inflammation causes pain. In new injuries, that is a good thing. It lets us know something is wrong and needs fixed. In chronic pain or system wide inflammatory disorders, the inflammation is not warranted. For these conditions, if I can reduce inflammation, I can reduce your pain. Dry Needling has been shown to reduce inflammation.

What conditions does it work for and is there research?

Dry needling has been show in the literature to work for a variety of conditions including, but not limited to, headaches, low back pain, neck pain, tendinitis, elbow pain, hip pain, knee pain, plantar fasciitis, frozen shoulder, rotator cuff tendinitis and partial tears, subacromial pain syndrome, myofasical pain syndrome and a host of other pain conditions.

For an up to date feed on the current research pertaining to dry needling visit our friends research feed at Integrative Dry Needling. 

Dry Needling For Back Pain. 

Dry Needling For Neck Pain 

Dry Needling For Plantar Fasciitis

Dry Needling For Migraines,  Headaches, Jaw pain or TMJ dysfunction, and Dry Needing for Cervicogenic Headaches. 

Dry Needling For Knee Pain. Dry Needling for Meniscus Injury. Dry Needling For Knee Arthritis. 

Dry Needling For Lateral Elbow Pain.  Dry Needling for Tennis Elbow.  

Dry Needling For Thoracic Pain. Dry Needling for Pain Between The Shoulder Blades. Dry Needling for Rib Pain. 

Dry Needling For Ankle Sprain.

All You need to know about dry needling + Exclusive Dry Needling Offers. 

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