Gentle Dry Needling
Rachel has been trained in gentle dry needling for pain management. This may differ from other forms of Dry needling that are more vigorous. This works by needles being inserted into the muscles and connective tissues of the body, where there is tension or trigger points. The intention is to allow the tissues to relax, decreasing tension and felt pain in the area that is being treated. Dry Needling may help manage chronic pain, muscular soreness, headaches, numbness, and tingling.
Is Dry Needling the Same as Acupuncture?
Acupuncture and Dry Needling are often used interchangeably, to describe treatments using fine needles without injectate. However, Acupuncture denotes Chinese traditional medicine, where needles are used to ‘unblock’ vital energy known as ‘qi’ along the meridian channels to bring the body back into balance. Whereas Dry Needling implies a biomedical paradigm and used in pain management to relieve tension and Trigger Points.
How do Trigger Points form and what are Trigger Points and their relation to pain?
Acute trauma, repetitive microtrauma and/or prolonged sustained posture may lead to the development of stress on muscle fibres and the formation of Trigger Points. A Trigger Point is a hyperirritable pain spot, that can be a palpable nodule in the taut bands of the skeletal muscles' and fascia. They produce pain locally or can refer pain. For example, when the muscle at the top of your shoulder (trapezius) has a trigger point it can refer pain up the side of your neck and head causing a headache. Alongside pain, Trigger Points can create muscle weakness and restricted range of movement.
Trigger Points are associated with nociception. Nociception refers to a signal arriving at the central nervous system as a result of the stimulation of specialised sensory receptors in the peripheral nervous system called nociceptors.
It is thought that the pain caused by trigger points is due to hypoxia and decreased blood flow within the trigger point. This leads to a decreased pH, which activates the muscle nociceptors to restore homeostasis. This causes peripheral sensitization, causing weakness, numbness and or pain.
How does Dry Needling work?
Dry needling is thought to have a range of neural and biochemical effects that can contribute to pain relief. The needles stimulate free nerve endings, sensory receptors and autonomic fibres-(sensory fibres that involved in temperature, pain sensation) in the skin, muscle, and connective tissue.
It also causes the release of a range of neuroactive mediators, which can inhibit transmission of nociceptive signals (the sensory receptors) in the peripheral and central nervous system and alter pain perception causing analgesia (pain relief.)
What to expect
Dry needling is usually used to compliment a massage treatment rather than a standalone treatment at True Calm as it can be a great way to release tension and pain for further manual massage to be done with ease.
With consent from the client, sterile, single use needles are used, and most clients do not feel the needles insert. There can be a ‘twitch response’, which is a short and fast muscle contraction, that can feel like a short sharp pain. This is a desired reaction as it as it interrupts the nociceptive signalling that causes pain, resulting in pain relief.
Some clients report that they feel achy and sore after the treatment, with it usually subsiding later that day or within a couple of days. Other side effects that can occur, is small bruising at the sight where the needle has been inserted.
Like massage it can take a few treatments to have the desired result. Or can be used a relief for clients that suffer from Chronic pain.
- Resources: Brukner & Khan’s Clinical Sports Medicine and Physiopedia.