Dry needling is a modern treatment designed to ease muscular pain.
During dry needling, a practitioner inserts several filiform needles into your skin. Filiform needles are fine, short, stainless steel needles that don’t inject fluid into the body. That’s why the term “dry” is used.
Practitioners place the needles in “trigger points” in your muscle or tissue. Dry needling is also sometimes called intramuscular stimulation. The points are areas of knotted or hard muscle.
Dry needling practitioners say the needle helps release the knot and relieve any muscle pain or spasms. The needles will remain in your skin for a short period of time. The length of time depends on the practitioner.
In-and-out techniques
Some forms of dry needling use techniques called pistoning or sparrow pecking. Both of these techniques rely on in-and-out needle insertion. In other words, the needles don’t stay inserted in the skin for long. The needles prick the trigger points and are then removed.
Non-trigger point technique
Some dry needling techniques treat a broader landscape of the central nervous system. This is called non-trigger point treatment. Instead of inserting needles only in the area of pain, the practitioner may instead insert needles in areas around the point of pain instead of directly on it.
This technique relies on the idea that pain is the result of a greater nerve or muscular issue, not just focused in the main area of pain.
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