Dry Needling 101: How It Works and What to Expect

Dry needling can be a really powerful tool in our toolbox as physical therapists. In this blog, we're going to tell you what it is, how it works and who can benefit from dry needling. Intrigued? Great, keep reading to find out more!

Over the last several years, dry needling has definitely grown in popularity. We have people that seek us out specifically for dry needling for a number of reasons. These can include great results from dry needling in the past, a friend or family member recommending it, or doing some reading online and just wanting to know more (sound familiar?).

So, what actually is dry needling? It's a simple procedure really. At its most basic level, we insert a needle into a problem area. On a deeper level, we use a clean technique, meaning we clean the area with an alcohol prep pad, use a sterile needle removed right from the packaging, gloved hands additionally cleaned with hand sanitizer. The procedure is referred to as "dry needling" because the needle itself is the only thing that is used. Other procedures/injections use a thicker gauge needle with a cutting tip and a pipe configuration to insert a solution. For dry needling, we use a thin, single filament. We insert the needle into a muscle and can use techniques like "pistoning", gently sliding the needle a little further in and out, or adding electrical stimulation.

Ok, so now you have a working knowledge of what dry needling is. But, how does it work? Well, that's a great question! There's still a lot to be understood about the mechanisms of how dry needling works. From the studies available right now, we believe that dry needling can elicit positive changes within your body in two different ways, those being 1) mechanically and 2) neurophysiologically. Let's break these down in easier to understand ways.

First, the mechanical benefits, or local mechanism of how dry needling works, happens near the area where the issue is. For example, if you are having shoulder pain with overhead movements and have sensitivity in the muscles around your shoulder, we can needle these muscles. These muscles will be stimulated by the dry needling and can have a "local twitch response" (LTR) and can release or have a sensation of relief. This can be similar to other manual therapy techniques, massage, adjustments and so on. But, the one really cool thing about dry needling that these other techniques cannot provide is that we're able to get deeper, to the actual level of the muscle tightness or trigger point and often make this change even quicker.

Now onto the neurophysiologic benefits. In tech terms, think of this as a "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" or a reset for your nervous system. Dry needling can have a down regulating effect on your nervous system and can result in a cascade of endorphins or similar neurotransmitters (chemicals that trigger next steps in your nervous system). When explaining this within sessions, we often talk about symptoms being like a light bulb and now we have access to a dimmer switch that can turn down the lights or calm down your symptoms.

Now onto the key takeaway with dry needling. It can be really powerful, BUT it should not be used as a standalone treatment. Instead, we have found it to be most effective when we use it to give you the benefits discussed above to create a "window" of opportunity where symptoms are decreased and therefore allow you to do movements and interventions that will encourage long term symptom improvement and change. Back to our shoulder pain example from above, after needling and your shoulder feels better, less pain and more mobile, we provide you with mobility drills that work into your newly available range of motion and loading/strengthening exercises that encourage stability and allow you to really "own" this new found mobility.

If you've had dry needling before and experienced the benefits, but then only to fall back into the same exact symptoms, you likely are missing out on the things that will make the lasting and long term change. We see this all the time.

So, if you're looking to get out of pain now AND do something that your body will thank you for in the long run, click the button below to schedule your Free Discovery Call. We'd love to hear more about your situation, understand how you're being impacted and see if we're a great fit to help you. Talk to you soon!