Many people have had some type of negative experience with needles. They may have had a shot that left their arm painful for days afterward. Perhaps they’ve lived through the nightmare of having blood drawn when the nurse couldn’t find a compliant vein. Physical therapists are well aware that many people don’t like needles because of experiences like these. However, they also know that the benefits functional dry needling can offer can change your mind about needles.
What is functional dry needling?
You may not have heard of functional dry needling before, but you’ve probably heard of acupuncture. Now, don’t misunderstand. These two practices are not the same. However, they are similar in that they both use thin (think fishing line thickness) needles to help ease pain, soft tissue tension and other symptoms. The difference is that dry needling is guided and based on Western medical science, which allows it to target specific muscles, ligaments and other soft tissue structures.
Benefits that functional dry needling can offer
Let’s get back to why your physical therapist would use functional dry needling in the first place. The answer is that this physical therapy technique offers many benefits. Some of these benefits include:
- Reducing, not causing, pain — Many people associate needles with pain. But physical therapists work hard to ensure that this technique reduces rather than causes pain. There may, however, be some discomfort when the needles are initially inserted. Also, the twitch response this therapy method causes can lead to a cramplike aching. The upside is that medical studies show that dry needling is effective at reducing pain. One study on patients recovering from a total knee replacement found that this technique reduced visual analogue scores for pain by more than 36%.
- Being useful for many conditions — People recovering from knee surgery aren’t the only ones who can benefit from dry needling. There are many conditions that this physical therapy method can benefit. Some conditions that this technique has been proven to benefit include:
- Golfer’s or tennis elbow.
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction.
- Shoulder pain.
- Hip osteoarthritis.
- Trigger finger.
- Lower back pain.
- Improving ability to do normal activities — For many people, walking is one of the activities they do every single day. Knee, hip or ankle stiffness can make walking much more difficult. Dry needling has been shown to help reduce joint stiffness. As a result, it can also help improve your ability to walk or do other normal daily activities. Remember that study of patients recovering from a total knee replacement? It reports that more than 71% of patients who had dry needling saw improvements in their six-minute walking test distances.
Find experts who can help you get beneficial functional dry needling at Border TS
Ready to explore the benefits that functional dry needling can offer you? Our physical therapists at Border Therapy Services are ready and willing to help you. This technique is one of many that we offer, and it is often combined with other techniques to create individualized physical therapy plans.
Contact our team today for more information about dry needling or to schedule a free screening to learn if you can benefit from it.