Dry needling is a technique of Invasive Physiotherapy where needles of very small thickness and of different lengths are used. The technique consists of introducing a needle into the tissue that we want to treat: muscle, ligaments, capsules…
This little prick is practically painless, and depending on the technique we choose a posteriori the needle moves or not, which can cause various “discharges”, but as we tell patients in these small discharges is the improvement of treatment and usually last a few seconds.
In our case, in certain locations, we perform the treatment with ultrasound control for greater safety. Of course we do it under maximum hygiene and sterilization conditions to avoid infections. The treatment is very safe and the only thing that may be left is a post-puncture pain for a couple of days, but the patient’s symptoms usually improve, even if the patient has that feeling of stiffness. The improvement is not only in pain but there can also be improvements in the quality of muscle contraction, which makes it a technique widely used in athletes.
In which cases is it indicated?
It is a technique used for various musculoskeletal pain, from low back pain, sciatica, cervicalgia, sprains, fiber ruptures, herniated discs, shoulder pain, tendinopathies, epicondylalgia, osteoarthritis, etc.. Generally with a great improvement of the patient’s symptoms.
We look for trigger points that are hyperirritable bands in a musculoskeletal tense band (so that people understand it well similar to a contracture), which are capable of generating pain and other symptoms locally or not. There are already many scientific articles that demonstrate the usefulness of dry needling in many pathologies. Although it is still difficult to explain how it works, it is known that in these trigger points there are many substances that can cause pain, inflammation, motor disturbances… that by using the technique on them improves their biochemistry.
What are the advantages or benefits of this technique?
The advantage lies in the speed with which patients improve, being higher than with other techniques that require a greater number of sessions. In addition, it also serves us as a diagnosis, given that when treating this tissue, sometimes the patient is able to perceive when we are palpating the trigger point, how they reproduce their pain, which allows us to know where the cause of their pain is and thus be able to better choose the treatments.
What are the differences between dry needling and acupuncture?
Acupuncture is similar to dry needling in that a needle is applied through the skin, but acupuncture does not seek to target damaged musculoskeletal tissue, but rather to stimulate or relax (basically balance) energy points that pass through energy channels, sometimes at a distance from the injury. These acupuncture points sometimes coincide with muscle trigger points as has been proven in several scientific studies, which somewhat resembles the technique.
Another difference is that the handling of the needle (the technique) when it is already introduced into the feet is different. We could say that both techniques are similar since they look for the improvement of the patient, they use needles, sometimes the location is similar, but both the technique and what the technique looks for is different.