Dry Needling Acupuncture
Dry Needling involves the use of acupuncture needles to help treat myofascial pain and dysfunction. It is additional to traditional physiotherapy treatments and has become a popular treatment for a number of common musculoskeletal conditions.
The acupuncture needle is inserted directly into a trigger point. These trigger points are tender, tight points in muscle that are extremely sensitive to pressure or touch. They can occur with a number of conditions including muscle overload, arthritic conditions, or an injury.
Research has shown that trigger point muscle is the same as non-trigger point muscle. Therefore, it appears that a trigger point is a chronic change in muscle tone.
When the acupuncture needle is placed directly into the trigger point, a local “twitch” response may occur. Eliciting the twitch response can be uncomfortable or painful but does improve treatment outcomes by activating endogenous opioids and pain inhibition pathways which help to decrease pain. Dry needling can immediately soften painful trigger points in muscles.
Dry Needle Acupuncture can help a number of sporting and non-sporting related injuries including:
- Chronic trigger point pain
- Shoulder injuries
- Spinal (neck and back) pain
- Tight muscles
- Arthritic type pain
- Tennis and golfers elbow
- Muscle spasm
- Headaches
- Occupational overuse injuries
- Sciatica
All Physiotherapists at Physiotherapy West have done extra training and are qualified to administer Dry Needles for therapeutic relief from symptoms.
