Muscle Pain Relief With Dry Needling

By La Plata Physical Therapy, Inc.

La Plata Physical Therapy, Inc.

. http://www.laplatapt.com/

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Muscle Pain Relief With Dry Needling

Following an injury or degenerative processes, many people suffer from shoulder tightness, leg pain and chronic lower back pain. In some cases remedies like pills, heat and massage therapy will relieve pain. However, relief can be temporary and the pain may persist.

People are frustrated when pain prevents them from normal activities like driving, walking, cleaning house or simply going out to dinner. Dry needling can be an effective treatment to reduce pain and improve their functions.

Dry needling uses a thin filiform needle without any medicine to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points as well as muscular and connective tissues. Trigger points are commonly called “knots” that you can touch and feel when muscles are tight. Muscle tightness and knots hinder blood circulation and cause pain in muscles and joints.

By stimulating the trigger points with needles, muscle relaxation occurs and blood circulation improves. According to Dr. Chan Gunn, Director of the Gunn Pain Clinic in Vancouver Canada, the minor injury caused by dry needling generates electrical energy that has a healing effect.

Although many people are nervous about needles, you may not feel penetration through the skin. If you do, it's only a mild and momentary prick because dry needles are 10 times thinner than hypodermic needles. Once the needle penetrates the skin, normal muscle does not have any pain, but if your muscle is dysfunctional, a slight discomfort with a muscle twitch will occur.

The discomfort felt will quickly disappear and immediate muscle relaxation follows as the muscle is no longer tight. Many patients experience dramatic pain relief and improved movements in just a few treatments with long lasting effect.

Like other treatments, a complete physical therapy examination and evaluation will be needed before receiving dry needling. Your physical therapist can provide you with more information for dry needling.