Why Should I Choose Trigger Point Dry Needling (TDN) into my Rehabilitation?

There have been numerous studies supporting the positive effect of inserting needles has on chemical and electrical communications in the human body to cause the increased release of the body’s pain-relieving chemicals from our nervous system.

The procedure uses tiny needles which induce injury that sends signals to the brain to initiate the immediate repair of the damaged tissues with healthy and new replaced tissues or muscle.

Dry needling in an aching/painful muscle, or physiotherapists calls ‘trigger point,’ frequently provokes a “twitch” response from the muscle. The reaction is both diagnostic and therapeutic because healthy muscle tissue will not “twitch” when stimulated by the needle. Once a “twitch” response has been prompted, the muscles in that area relax, ‘inflammation’ is reduced, oxygen and nutrients circulation in the muscle improves. As a result of these physiologic processes, dry needling can purposely address tendon, muscle, and myofascial dysfunction and pain.

One recent study for example, randomly select people undergoing total knee replacement to receive either trigger point dry needling or a placebo treatment while under anaesthesia (neither patients nor their health care providers knew who was in each group). The result is surprising. People who received the needles reported less pain than the controls during the first month after the surgery.