VC Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy & Dry Needling

Trigger points. Nagging pain. Persistent muscle knots.

Dry needling is an evidence-supported and efficient way to decrease pain, improve range of motion, restore mobility and reduce injury recovery time.

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What Is Dry Needling?

Dry needling is a medical procedure using a solid fine filament (needle) to penetrate the skin in order to treat myofascial trigger points, muscle spasms, or dysfunctional tissue. Licensed physical therapists use these needles to mechanically stimulate muscles, tendons, or fascia. It is used for effectively reducing acute and chronic pain, as well as improving motor performance, range of motion, and strength.

Dry needling is not acupuncture, although the tools used are the same. Acupuncture is a holistic treatment based off the traditional Chinese Meridian energy system. Dry needling is a mechanical treatment based on current Western anatomic, biomechanical, and neurologic understandings of the body.

Common pain patterns

An overview of the most common pain referral patterns we treat. Your initial evaluation will help identify treatment areas if dry needling is appropriate.
Credit to triggerpoints.net for the following images.

Neck And Shoulder Pain

Back Pain

Hip And Knee Pain

Reset

Dry needling acts as a mechanical stimulus to dysfunctional musculoskeletal tissue. It can desensitize hypercontractile tissue as well as stimulate underactive muscle groups.

Restore

Alleviating trigger points can help facilitate normalized muscle contraction and thus restore range of motion. Decreasing pain and the sensation of tightness allows for improvement of flexibility needed to stay active

Reinforce

Movement is medicine. Dry needling is a highly effective manual treatment to recircuit or reprogram the brain to body connection. This technique is followed up with neuromuscular re-education, postural correction and strengthening for optimal mobility and performance.

Let’s connect

⚡️Upper trap reset⚡️ #1 top requested area to treat. The upper traps are incredibly responsive to dry needling and need only gentle frequency/intensity of electrical stimulation for a trigger point release effect. If you're experiencing chronic neck pain and tightness, book an appointment today! We'll 'reset' the muscles and address the cause to prevent those painful knots from coming back ✔️ • • • #dryneedling #physicaltherapy #choosept #dryneedlingaustin #dryneedlingatx #manualtherapy #posturalreeducation #neuromuscularreeducation #electricalstimulation #intramuscularstimulation #idryneedle #needling #bodywork

@shennaynayy came to see me for a low back strain. I used dry needling, intramuscular stimulation, and dynamic/PNF stretching to calm and speed up the healing process for her left QL and lumbar extensors. Swipe to hear her share her experience! ✨ • • • Cathy also creates hand-made pet bandanas, double swipe and check out @sewmuchwag for the cutest personalized pet swag 🐾 • • • #supportlocalbusiness #supportsmallbusiness #physicaltherapy #dryneedling #choosept #physiotherapy #physio #intramuscularstimulation #musculoskeletal #bodywork #vcphysicaltherapy #vcpt

➕Managing post-op pain ➕ Many post-operative protocols dictate a protective phase for the first few weeks following surgery. The surgical limb may be immobilized and active use of surrounding muscles may be temporarily restricted to protect the surgical repair. 🚫 This patient is three weeks out from a major rotator cuff repair and bicep tenodesis surgery. He has been holding his shoulder stiffly inside of his sling and shrugging his entire arm up to perform activities like dressing and typing; this has lead to neck pain and inflammation at the upper traps. ✖️ We don't dry needle at a surgical site for at least 8 weeks to avoid the risk of infection, however we can treat the muscles above or below to relieve symptoms and maximize participation in therapy. After two dry needling treatments and postural re-education, this patient felt significant improvement in his neck pain and range of motion. 👍🏼 Click 'Book Now' in bio. ✔️ On another note, Happy Lunar New Year! 🧧#恭喜發財 #physicaltherapy #dryneedling #intramuscularstimulation #electricalstimulation #choosept #postop #rotatorcuff #postoprecovery #bodywork

⚡️What is a trigger point? • • • Even physical therapists get #triggerpoints (hardly surprising when we're curled up over our laptops documenting half our career 🥲). My good friend and patient PT has some myofascial (muscle and soft tissue) restrictions near her upper left traps. In colloquial terms you could call it a 'knot'; these trigger points are bundles of muscle fibers that don't follow a healthy contract/relax cycle 🪢, and often a result of poor body mechanics or prolonged static posture. 👩🏼‍💻 Trigger points can be latent or active, but this bad boy was definitely active, which we assessed through palpation and referred pain pattern. You can see the muscle #twitch as the fine filiform #needle mechanically stimulates it to fully contract and relax. 💪🏼 • • • It is not painful but expect to be sore afterwards, just like you've had a good workout. The soreness will dissipate over the next 24-48 hours and each subsequent session (anywhere from 3-6 in many cases) will cause less and less soreness while decreasing sensation of muscle tightness and pain. 💆🏼‍♀️ Of course, we always want to reinforce passive manual treatments with #correctiveexercise 🏋🏻‍♀️ as well as correct any #postural or #ergonomic issues. • • • #dryneedling #physicaltherapy #physiotherapy #physio #choosePT #myofascial #bodywork

#vaccinated ✔️ • • • It'd be a good idea to schedule your second dose with 1-2 rest days ahead. I'm fatigued with body aches and chills 24 hours post-injection. Wouldn't want to feel this sick x100; please wear a #mask y'all 😷

THANK YOU to patients who bring their pups in! Totally made my day #bestpatientsever #physicaltherapy #miniaussie