When muscle tension and related stiffness cause pain that affects your range of motion, you may benefit from dry needling.
Overusing your muscles affects circulation to the muscle fibers. When your muscles don’t get enough oxygen and nutrients, they’re unable to return to their normal resting state. Without enough oxygen and nutrients, the muscles become acidic, and the nerves become more sensitive.
Inserting the dry needle into the muscle knot restores blood flow to the area, reducing acidity so the muscle can relax. The needle also triggers the release of your body’s natural painkillers.
The team at Key Spine Care determines if you’re a candidate for dry needling after a thorough evaluation.
The sports medicine and primary spine care experts may recommend dry needling if you have muscle knots that cause pain and affect mobility. These knots may form in any muscle throughout the body, including the back, legs, or buttocks.
The team may also recommend dry needling to ease joint pain, back pain, migraines, and tension-type headaches.
Your provider at Key Spine Care performs your dry needling at the office. First, they clean your skin with an antiseptic agent and then use their fingers to find the muscle knot. Once they locate the knot, they insert the needle.
Your muscle may feel sore or twitch once the needle is inserted. The team leaves the needle in place for a few seconds or up to 20 minutes. They may insert only two needles during your first dry needling session, but you can get up to 15 needles at a time.
After your dry needling, you can expect to feel sore for a day or two. The team recommends drinking plenty of water, and they also urge you to skip any strenuous activity while your muscles are healing.
You may feel improvements in pain and mobility within a few days. But the team recommends a series of dry needling sessions to gain the most benefits.
After we have determined your individual diagnosis, we create a comprehensive and individualized plan to help you resume doing what you love - without the use of rest, pills, injections, or surgery!
After this stage, you will have:
1. Eliminated the source of the pain
2. Found pain-free postures
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We work together as a team to implement our shared plan to develop healthy posture and movement patterns.
After this Stage, you will have completed exercises to address any needs in:
1. Motor Control
2. Stabilization
3. Mobility
We teach Self-Care Methods to make your body stronger and more resilient so that there is a much less likely chance of recurrence.
After this Stage, you will have a toolbox of movements and knowledge to address:
1. Strength & Conditioning Exercises
2. Work or Sport-Specific Tasks
While we love our 1:1 time with our patients, we also do NOT want you to be locked into a never-ending treatment plan of 2-3 visits per week for life! Most of our treatment plans are 12 visits or less as we prioritize teaching you how to:
