If you’re struggling with tight muscles and pain, dry needling is an excellent treatment option that is both minimally invasive and medication-free. At Specialty Physical Therapy, our team of physical therapists utilizes dry needling to help our patients in Sterling Heights achieve their pain management goals when other treatment options have been unsuccessful. Let’s take a closer look at dry needling and how it can help patients in Sterling Heights manage their pain when other treatment options have failed to provide relief.
What Conditions is Dry Needling Used for?
Dry needling is typically used for tight muscles that cause pain and tension in patients. At Specialty Physical Therapy, some of the most common reasons we use dry needling at our physical therapy clinic in Sterling Heights MI are to give patients:
- Help with muscle tightness
- Release knots and tension in muscles
- Help with pain from overuse injuries
- Reduce muscle spasms
- Help with neck pain and tension headaches
If you’ve been struggling with muscle tension, muscle spasms, or tension headaches in Sterling Heights and other treatment options haven’t been able to provide you with the relief you’re looking for, dry needling may be an effective treatment option for you.
What is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a physical therapy treatment option that utilizes thin needles to release muscle tension, enhance muscle activation, and stimulate the body’s natural healing response. The physical therapist inserts thin needles into the treatment site, targeting “trigger points” or knots in the muscles. When the needle contacts this trigger point, tension is released, alleviating pain and discomfort associated with overly tense muscles. Dry needling can be an effective treatment option for muscular pain in various parts of the body and offers the added benefit of being both minimally invasive and medication-free.
What to Expect From a Dry Needling Treatment Session in Sterling Heights
Many patients who come in for a dry needling session have concerns about what to expect during the treatment. Your treatment session will first start with one of our physical therapists, who will identify treatment areas and the insertion point for the needles. Before inserting the needle into the treatment site, our physical therapist will clean and sterilize the skin surrounding the treatment site. While dry needling does use needles, they are incredibly thin needles, much smaller than the ones used for injections, and most patients experience minimal discomfort during a dry needling session. When the needle reaches the trigger point, you may feel a brief twitch as the muscle begins to release. After your dry needling treatment session is finished, you may feel slightly sore over the next couple of days, similar to the soreness you would expect after a workout. After the soreness has passed, you should feel much less tense, more mobile, and have much less muscle pain.
Dry Needling as Part of a Physical Therapy Treatment Plan
While dry needling can work wonders on its own, we often combine dry needling with other physical therapy treatments to maximize our patients’ results. This approach yields long-term results in many of our patients and is an integral part of our comprehensive physical therapy approach. To learn more about dry needling and whether it can be an effective treatment option for you in Sterling Heights, contact Specialty Physical Therapy today.
Get Started With Dry Needling in Sterling Heights Today
To get started with a dry needling evaluation and learn more about this treatment option, contact Specialty Physical Therapy today to schedule your first appointment. Sterling Heights patients can reach us at (586) 722-7987 for our 15 Mile location, and at (586) 488-3636 for our Schoenherr location. Our team looks forward to working with you towards your pain management goals. Here are more services we offer: