Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine approach to maintaining energy flow through the body’s meridians, a network of invisible channels. These beliefs and rules date back over 2000 years. The Acupuncture needles are inserted at various points along the meridians to continue the flow of energy.
At Foot Imprint Podiatry we provide the latest evidence based dry needling techniques which are grounded upon modern neurophysiology and anatomy. Dry needling involves inserting a thin, sterile and single use needle into a trigger point of the muscle. It’s used to treat pain, release muscle tension and improve function. Often stretching and massage alone won’t provide relief due to the focal areas of tightness within the muscle that develop.
Dry needling is a highly effective treatment that uses sterile thin needles to release tight muscle.
How does Dry needling differ from Acupuncture?
Dry needling and Sports injuries
Musculoskeletal pain is often associated with exquisite tenderness at a trigger point site. Trigger points can be found in muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and the periosteum. Often the trigger point is accompanied by muscle shortening which prevents the muscle from working optimally. As a result, there is a pull on the tendinous insertion which causes tendinosis. These trigger points can refer pain elsewhere and irritate nerves or create pain in other remote areas of the body. Often these muscle imbalances are associated with secondary biomechanical issues.
Following the treatment:
- The muscle tension is reset
- Trigger point is desensitised by the body’s own neurotransmitting chemicals
