Dry needling is a treatment that involves the insertion of a very thin needle into trigger points or tight muscles of your body. The main purpose is to improve tissue healing and restore muscle function.
Dry needling is known to help with:
- Low back pain/tension
- Neck pain
- Tennis elbow
- Migraines
- Spinal dysfunction
- Joint dysfunction
- Sciatica
- And more
How Does Dry Needling Therapy Work?
There is more to this technique than just sticking a dry needle into your skin and magically making you feel better. There is some science involved. Needling creates a lesion that starts a process of physiological mechanisms remodeling injured and inflamed soft tissue. It replaces injured tissue with fresh tissue of the same type.
Overall, what makes needling effective is that it basically encourages your body to fix the injury and reduce the pain by naturally healing itself. Some people think needling consists of injecting medicine into your body but trust us, THERE IS NO MEDICATION INJECTED and the entire procedure is painless.
The Three Top Benefits of Dry Needling Therapy
- Relieve Pain and Muscle Tightness
What makes dry needling an effective way to reduce pain in specific areas of the body is that it targets trigger points. Let’s say you’re suffering from shoulder or neck pain, the therapist will insert needles into detected trigger points. The needles will release tension, inflammation, chemicals, and pressure in the muscles that has caused the pain. The results will lead to an improved range of motion and immediate pain relief.
- Improved Range of Motion
Similar to how dry needling relieves tension and pressure in trigger points, this process helps improve overall movement of an injury. If you’re an athlete who is constantly on the move, having fluid movement and having a full range of motion is key to your success. Let’s use the shoulder again as an example. if you’re a baseball player, having a full range of motion in your shoulder is important when successfully throwing a baseball. By constantly throwing a baseball, you put a lot of stress on your shoulder and it’s important to relax your muscles and reduce tightness. Dry needling can help reduce this pain and improve overall function of your shoulder so you won’t feel constant discomfort in your shoulder or another injury.
- Speeds Up Recovery
Anytime you suffer an injury, the worst and longest part is the recovery process. Yes, some injuries require longer recovery periods than other but regardless, we’re all anxious to get back to full strength. With dry needling, patients have experienced quicker pain relief and improved range of motion. This is one of the best benefits of dry needling therapy as it speeds up the healing process compared to other treatment options.