Dry needling is an incredibly effective way to take away muscle knots, pain and tension. These knots, commonly called myofascial trigger points, are muscles that have gotten shortened and tight. They can feel like a cord as you push over them. These areas are usually painful to touch, can cause pain in the area and to other parts of your body called referred pain.

Watch this video on dry needling as I treat my own knee!

What is dry needling?

There are different types of dry needling. Both have the goal of reducing muscle tension and pain. The most common is to insert the needle or filament into the knot and piston into the trigger points. Getting a local twitch response or LTR is a positive event but doesn’t have to happen to have success. This LTR is a reflex that happens when the trigger point is reached and causes a relaxation of the muscle afterward.

Another form of dry needling uses two filaments while hooking up a TENS unit (or estim) to cause a muscle contraction. This is not a painful treatment. You should feel a tapping. We have learned over the years that fatiguing the muscle is best in larger muscles and over 15 minutes of this dry needling helps more than just a few minutes. Here is a video showing a typical treatment.

Is dry needling painful?

Dry needling is no more painful than getting the same area massaged or pushed on. Cornerstone consistently uses smaller diameter needles to improve your comfort. We have found over years of treating that reducing the size or thickness of the needle reduced ~80% of post-treatment soreness. 

Cornerstone consistently uses smaller diameter needles to improve your comfort

How safe is dry needling?

Overall dry needling is very safe. The safety of dry needling is fully the responsibility of the practitioner doing the treatment. The better trained and more experienced practitioners typically treat a larger range of muscles and are usually quicker and less painful. A good rule to follow is if dry needling is very painful or sore, or not working, this could be related to how bad the trigger point is but also a need to try a different part of the muscle.

If it is sore for days following or very painful

– don’t give up on dry needling –

try a different approach

You can also improve the safety of dry needling as well as its effectiveness by using diagnostic ultrasound.

Check out this video on dry needling and ultrasound.

What’s cool is that you can see the needle in the muscle!

What conditions can dry needling help?

Runners with painful hips and knees

Sciatica from piriformis muscle tension

Back pain and tension

Tennis elbow responds very well

Headaches that have tension to the neck

TMJ with jaw pain and pain with chewing

Works great in shoulder tension and knots

Calf and lateral thigh tension responds well

Any area that you feel a knot in the muscle!

Can dry needling help my migraines?

Dry needling for headaches can be a very fast way to reduce the pain and tension you get at the base of your skull. If your migraines have a trigger coming from neck tension or start at the base of the skull then dry needling is something to try. Here is a video on dry needling for headache pain.

Benefits of dry needling

A common benefit is related to reduced muscle tension and pain. Circulation or blood flow also improves in the area that was dry needled. Strength to the muscle also improves and that can help with improving your ability to exercise.

What are the limitations of dry needling?

Dry needling only seems to work where you stick the filament. It does not address the underlying cause of why the knot is there in the first place. A treatment regimen should include manual medicine evaluation and possibly treatment.

Treat the cause, not just the symptoms.

Can I exercise after treatment?

Exercise and movement after dry needling is better than resting the area. Heat or ice can be helpful but continued movement is usually the best.

For more on what to do following dry needling check out this link.

For more information on what Cornerstone has to offer check this link out.