Dry Needling: How does it work?

By Dr. Laura Wenger, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT

As physical therapists, we have many tools that we can use to help patients get better. As part of our dedication to providing quality, evidence-based treatment, we are always seeking to provide individualized, effective, and efficient treatments to help you get back to your desired level of function as quickly as possible. One of the tools that we often use, depending on the patient in front of us, is dry needling. All of our PTs have become certified through training to be able to use this technique to help our patients when we feel it is indicated.

So, what exactly is dry needling?

Dry needling is a term we use to describe the use of a very thin, monofilament needle to penetrate skin through to soft tissue and muscle in a location we have identified as a target. This is the same small type of needle that acupuncturists use- though, even as we are using the same tool, dry needling is very different than acupuncture and the two cannot be confused.

Oftentimes, we will use “trigger points”, or areas of specific tightness and/or pain in a muscle that is related to your problem, as our target. We like to think of dry needling application like a “Control-Alt-Delete” reset to our nervous system. With this treatment, we can target muscles directly that are either too “wound up” or “lazy”, which can happen for a myriad of reasons related to how our brain is connecting dysfunctionally to our body via the nervous system. All of that being said, dry needling is not a standalone treatment, as we want to make sure we can address movement patterns, weakness, and mobility issues in the area around the target muscles to optimize your function with decreased pain. Through a well-rounded assessment, we are able to identify these issues that are contributing to your problem, and then systematically work through a treatment plan to get you back to where you want to be!


What does the research say about dry needling?

There has been much research done on dry needling, especially in the past 20 or so years as it has grown to be a more well-known treatment tool for physical therapists. As I’ve discussed in previous blog posts, no research is perfect and we have to take the information within the context of not only the limitations of the studies we look at but also the relevance to the patient in front of us as we make treatment decisions. But, I want to highlight a recent systematic review and meta-analysis where 42 articles were assessed in an attempt to understand the effectiveness of dry needling in treating musculoskeletal pain.(1) As is typically the case with much research, the review found that there are improvements that could be made in the quality of the research on dry needling. However, from the information they gathered, the authors concluded that dry needling had a larger effect in both timeframes of 72 hours after treatment and 13 to 24 weeks after treatment with reduced pain reported, though the effects were gathered from what was considered “low” quality evidence. There was “moderate” evidence for dry needling having a moderate effect in pain reduction in the 1 to 3 week timeframe after treatment. Overall as a result of this study, dry needling often compared better than no treatment, sham (or fake) dry needling treatments, or other pain-reducing therapies.

When it comes down to it, we see positive effects of dry needling treatment often with our patients both within our session and for days after until our next session. If you are curious about the benefits of dry needling in your case, make sure to ask your physical therapist if you are a current patient or give us a call to find out more if you are not an existing patient!

1. Sánchez-Infante J, Navarro-Santana MJ, Bravo-Sánchez A, Jiménez-Diaz F, Abián-Vicén J. Is dry needling applied by physical therapists effective for pain in musculoskeletal conditions? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Phys Ther. 2021;101:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzab070