Acupuncture or Dry Needling… What’s Right For Me?
Acupuncture and Dry needling are effective treatments for providing pain relief and assisting injury rehabilitation. But, they aren’t the same treatments.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture started in China over 5000 years ago. It’s based on the belief that good health is dependent on balanced flow of chi, the vital energy in all living organisms.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, chi circulates in the body through twelve pathways, called meridians. By inserting fine, single-use needles along the meridians at specific points, acupuncture is believed to rebalance the flow of chi to relieve tension, stress, inflammation, and pain.
Taking a Western medicine approach, several of the main acupuncture points are located along nerve pathways, at common trigger points, and in joints. By performing acupuncture at the affected nerves, soft tissues, and joints, the body releases natural endorphins and inflammatory mediators to help reduce pain.
Acupuncture is commonly used to treat muscle, joint, and nerve pain. We find acupuncture provides excellent relief of headaches, neck pain, overuse injuries, sprains and strains, arthritis, sciatica, lower back pain, and fibromyalgia.
Dry Needling
Dry needling is a much newer technique used for the treatment of muscular pain and myofascial dysfunction. The approach is based on Western anatomical and neurophysiological principles. Dry needling or intramuscular stimulation (IMS) is a technique developed by Dr. Chan Gunn and is very effective for relaxing overactive muscles, which contain trigger points.
The treatment involves needling a muscle’s tender, sore trigger points with a filament, single-use acupuncture needle to help relieve muscle tension and dysfunction. The treatment typically creates a quick, uncontrollable muscle twitch called a localized twitch response and is a sign we have found a trigger point.
Since both Acupuncture and dry needling use the same filament needles, confusing the two techniques is understandable!
If you’re having aches and pain and wonder if acupuncture or dry needling could help, call Peach Physiotherapy at 519-358-7342 to schedule a one-on-one assessment to find out how we can help!