What's triggerpoint dry needling?

Trigger point dry needling is an effectively used modality to treat musculoskeletal pain. Licensed healthcare professionals including doctors of physical therapy have been using dry needling all over the world including the United States.

Maven Sports Medicine has been at the forefront of pushing for rules and regulations in New Jersey to permit the use of this treatment modality, which finally received NJ State Board approval in 2011. Yes, as you all know, we like to move and shake. Obviously, there is contention with the NJ acupuncture state board, who claims that it is indeed "acupuncture" what we are doing, however, allow me to explain some significant differences (btw, I still refer patients out for acupuncture, if that clarifies the picture):

Acupuncture 
Acupuncture requires state licensure, 4 years of education and/or a masters degree.  Training includes extensive knowledge and application of eastern medicine, anatomy, which includes the meridian system, and herbal medicine.  The pulse (there are three in eastern medicine) along with the history and other clinical and subjective measures are used to determine where systematic, energetic dysfunction may lie, and intervention via acupuncture needles, herbal medicine, or acupressure is employed.  For example, back pain may be a result of stagnation or surplus of energy, "chi" in a particular meridian, and needles may be placed in a region away from where the pain appears to be located. 

Dry needling 
 A systematic method of addressing localized trigger point muscle pain using dry needles (that is, needles that do not have medication, developed by Travell and Simons, MD in the mid to late 1900s. Trigger points in muscles result from overuse, disuse/weakness, or (traumatic) injury to muscles.  Posture-related injuries also can lead to trigger points.  Palpation of the muscles or regions involved is performed with the goal of eliciting a patient's symptoms (whether localized or away from the region palpated), a "twitch" response, or "taut/ropy" bands of the muscle. 

Dry needling can also be used to treat long-standing tendinitis or old muscle tears/strains by bringing about a relatively "controlled" inflammation response to initiate the cascade of physiological responses necessary for tissue healing, as an adjunct to other physical therapy modalities.  Applying dry needling or "TDN" requires extensive knowledge of surface/musculoskeletal anatomy, of which DPTs are experts.  Keen palpation and joint assessment (as well as other components of our comprehensive evaluation) are also necessary skill sets, which we practice and use daily to determine where musculoskeletal injuries may be emanating from.

Dry needling, therefore, is absolutely within our physical therapy scope of practice, and I would never call it acupuncture- this would be an insult to the acupuncture profession and all the training that a licensed acupuncturist must go through.

What to expect
Patients often describe transient discomfort, particularly when a twitch response has been elicited.  Following a dry needling "session", we often have patients perform a few gentle active range of motion exercises to further the effects of the needle, ultrasound to relieve dry needling symptoms, and electrical stimulation with ice as well.  Discomfort or pain resulting from dry needling lasts for about 1-2 days on average and icing or over-the-counter NSAIDs can be used. After a few days, many people (especially if we target the right spot) report moderate to significant relief of their pain.  It's pretty amazing, actually.  We've used it on our everyday computer user to our elite athletes and have had good results, thus far.  Obviously, dry needling is not a panacea, or I'd be living in Fiji with my fam right now, but it does offer another way to help you get back to your activities.

Diagnoses
We have treated diagnoses including (cervicogenic) headaches, IT band syndrome, tennis/golfer's elbow, rotator cuff strains, Achilles tendonitis, neck and low back pain, hamstring and quad strains to name a few ailments. 

For more information on how dry needling may help you, contact us via email at mavenoffice@gmail.com or jerrymaven@gmail.com