Dry Needling
What is it?
Dry needling involves the insertion of a fine needle into trigger points or tight muscles in your body. The main purpose is to improve tissue healing and restore muscle function. It’s not normally used as a standalone treatment, but is combined with other techniques such as massage and stretching to achieve the best results.
Dry needling is known to help with:
- Low back pain/tension
- Neck pain
- Tennis elbow
- Migraines
- Spinal dysfunction
- Joint dysfunction
- Sciatica
- Plus more
Benefits of Dry Needling
Dry needling has many benefits these include:
- Pain Relief and Reduced Muscle Tightness
- Increased range of movement
- Increased circulation
- Improved muscle function
Dry Needling is not acupuncture
One of the questions I’m always asked is – Are Acupuncture and Dry Needling the same thing?
Other than using needles, they differ in a number of ways these are noted below.
Acupuncture is a complementary therapy, with its history rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. It involves stimulating certain points on the body, normally with a needle inserted into the skin. This helps to alleviate pain and treat various health conditions.
Dry needling is a technique used by a number of manual therapist (Osteopaths, Clinical Massage Therapist etc.) it is similar to acupuncture in that a needle is inserted into the skin to alleviate pain. However, the primary difference between the two is that acupuncture treats to alter the flow of Qi (or energy) along traditional Chinese meridians. Where as dry needling is based on western medicine and treats specific trigger points that are diagnosed beforehand within the muscle tissue.