Can Dry Needling Help You?

by Dr Riley Irving

Dry needling is a procedure used to treat trigger points in muscles. Trigger points are tight “knots” in a muscle that can be painful and reduce the function of a muscle. Certain trigger points can have a referred pain and correlation with areas in the foot.An extremely thin needle is used to penetrates through the skin to reach these trigger points and “release” the knot, which can essentially reduce symptoms and increase muscle function. No local anaesthetic is needed during the treatment, as it is often painless. Many people may associate dry needling and acupuncture as the same procedure. The ideologies and training for dry needling and acupuncture are quite separate. For qualified Podiatrists to practice dry needling, further education and training is required outside of their University degree.

A recent randomized control study found that dry needling of myofascial trigger points was effective in the treatment of plantar heel pain compared to sham dry needling (Cotchett, Munteanu & Landorf, 2014). This Study demonstrates that dry needling can be used as the sole intervention; however, dry needling can also be utilized to complement other treatments. For example, it may be used to reduce the tightness in a muscle to allow for a more efficient stretching program.

Benefits of dry needling:

• Reduce muscle pain
• Increase muscle function
• Effectively treat referred pain in the lower limb

References:

Cotchett MP, Munteanu SE, Landorf KB. Effectiveness of trigger point dry needling for plantar heel pain: a randomized controlled trial. Phys Ther. 2014;94: 1083–1094