Dry Needling Trigger Points to Relieve Acute and Chronic Pain

The single most effective method for relieving  pain in your muscles and fascia is dry needling.

A high percentage of acute and chronic pain is caused by trigger points. When you sprain your ankle running, or get shoulder pain after overdoing bench presses, you will always have activated your Trigger Points.

What Are Trigger Points?

Latent Trigger Points

Trigger points are biologically normal. They are small areas of hyper-irritability in muscles and their related fascia. We all have latent trigger points in predictable locations throughout the body.

When latent, they are painless. But, through  strain, injury, trauma, tension, overuse, postural imbalances, mental or emotional stress, your trigger points can become activated.

Trigger Points and Shortened Tight Muscles

TrPs also play a role in the shortening of muscles and fascia. When your muscles work, they contract, or shorten. Trigger points, and motor points, communicate to the muscle and fascia to shorten with work.

The problem is when they get activated, they stop telling the muscles to return to normal and they stay locked tight. Here is where Dry Needles will help you.

Dry Needling Releases Activated Trigger Points

The goal of dry needling is to release your active trigger points and unlock your tight shortened muscles.

When activated, trigger points become inflamed, and cause  pain. This pain can feel like deep burning, it can feel sharp or throbbing. The area will almost always feel stiff and tight. You have lost your elasticity in your muscles and fascia.

Really common areas to notice this are at the top of the shoulders, between the shoulder blades, and in the shoulder blades.

From Tension Headaches to Neck, Shoulder and Back Pain Trigger Points are the Primary Cause

When Trigger Points activate, they become the source of your pain. Anything from tension headaches and TMJ, to neck shoulder and back pain, to tennis elbow and runner’s knee, to sciatic pain involves TrPs.

When dry needling deactivates these TrPs, your inflammation and pain dissolve, and now your affected muscles and fascia will return to their normal length

Even after a single session you will feel your pain dissolve, and your affected muscles feel loose again. Almost like a miracle!

How We Cure Trigger Point Pain with Dry Needling

The Process of Dry Needling

Dry Needling involves the insertion of a needle directly into activated trigger points. On entry there is often a muscle twitch response, called a “fasciculation.” Your muscle literally jumps in place. That’s the TrP releasing.

The twitch response signals the unlocking of your locked tight muscles and fascia.

How Does It Feel?

This is a very relaxing experience, accompanied by dramatic hormonal and neurotransmitter responses that will put you into a deep sleep that leaves you refreshed and feeling very loose. You tension is gone.

When you get up from the treatment table you may have a “post workout” soreness, but your painful area and your whole body will feel loose and relaxed.

You may even be pain free after your first visit. But most people come in for 3 to 6 visits over a couple of months.

Where Are Trigger Points Located?

Muscles and Fascia

Trigger points are located in both the muscles and the fascia.

They have been carefully mapped out by pioneer Janet Travel, M.D.  Dr. Travel wrote books documenting their location, and manual therapy methods for releasing them.

What is Fascia?

Fascia is loose connective tissue that carries biological messages from muscle to muscle. Fascia also organize the working of individual muscles.

The understanding of fascial pathways is very important when using Dry Needling to relieve pain.

What is the Difference between Dry Needling and Acupuncture?

Dry Needling gets its name because it is an alternative to the injection of lidocaine (wet needling) into trigger points with a hypodermic needle, as MDs might do.

But this therapy is done by all clinicians who do it, whether MDs, physical therapists, chiropractors, or dry needling specialists, with acupuncture needles.

We typically use slightly thicker needles than acupuncturists use for acupuncture treatments, and we seek a stronger response with our needles. We seek the fasciculation muscle twitch response, that is how we know its working.

Dry Needling is based on Western Anatomy

DN is based on a knowledge of western anatomy, of the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia. Its goal is to relieve pain.

The use of Dry Needling requires specialized training in the location of trigger points and motor points.

Needle Technique in Dry Needling

And finally, you have to learn the correct ways of using Dry Needles to release the activated trigger points. Its different from Acupuncture needle technique, and takes time to master.

You might also learn how to improve your results with the use of electrical stimulation attached to the ends of specific needles.

I often do cupping and/or hot packs after removing the needles to help your body and nervous system recover.

Acupuncture is based on “Channel Theory.”

Acupuncture is based on the theory of the flow of Qi through the acupuncture channels mapped in ancient China. Its goal is to unblock stagnations in the Qi flow using Acupuncture needles.

How we unblock the Qi flow is complex, in essence we balance Qi, Blood, and Fluid and restore the harmony between Yin and Yang.

That may sound foo-foo or New Agey, but its anything but. There are very specific methods for this process, and specific for every kind of disease. You can treat anything you might go to the MD for treatment, but without drugs or side effects.

How Soon Will I Feel Better with Dry Needling and How Many Visits Will I Need

Most people feel considerable improvement after even a single visit. They get up off of the table, and feel an immediate loose and refreshed feeling. You might also feel sore where the needles were placed, like a post-workout soreness.

Some people, with fresh injuries, can feel all better after even a single visit. But most people need 2-3 visits for a recent injury, and 5-6 for more chronic pain.

Its really rare that I see someone more than 6 times, which is considerably fewer treatments than with acupuncture, chiropractic, or physical therapy.

I can remember just one  single person in 32 years who took 10 treatments, for a case of severe, chronic, low back pain.

What Kinds of Injuries and Pain Can I Treat With Dry Needling?

Dry Needling gives fast relief from:

• Neck, Shoulder, Back, and Spinal Pain
• Neck Pain, Shoulder Pain, Rotator Cuff Pain
• Back Pain, Herniated or Bulging Discs
• Piriformis Syndrome

Sports Injuries and Shortened Tight Muscles

• IT Band Pain, Tennis Elbow  (lateral eicondylitis)
• Golfer’s Elbow (medial epicondylitis),  Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Brachial Plexus Syndrome (Thoracic Outlet Syndrome)

Foot Pain

• Achilles Tendinitis, Heel Spurs, Morton’s Neuroma
• Nerve Entrapment Syndromes
• Facial Pain
• Tension and Migraine Headache
• TMJ, and more.