There are many ways to help with muscle pain, soreness, and injury that do not always involve medication taking over. Holistic ways of helping are; acupuncture, cupping, chiropractors, dry needling, yoga, certain spices and vitamins, and many more options. Founded in 2008, Empower Physical Therapy and Fitness, physical therapy in Royal Oak, MI, is the provider for all your physical and aquatic therapy needs. If you live in the Royal Oak area and are looking to recover from an injury, improve sports performance, lose weight, Empower Physical Therapy can help.
What Is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a treatment done by physical therapy in Royal Oak, MI who is certified in the procedure. A thin needle penetrates the skin and helps to treat many underlying muscular trigger points for the management of pain and movement issues. The trigger point is a tight band in a muscle fiber that can impair function, restrict the range of motion, cause pain or cause local tenderness to the area. When dry needling is applied to a trigger point, it can decrease tightness, increase blood flow, and reduce local pain. Dry needling treats the muscle tissue, but its goal is to reduce pain, deactivate trigger points and restore the function of the muscle. It is rarely a standalone procedure; it is often part of a broader physical therapy approach incorporating other traditional interventions into treatment. Dry needling can be used for almost any part of the body, such as shoulder, neck, heel, hip, and back pain.
What Is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture consists of the insertion of very thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. A key component of acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain; more so, it is used for overall wellness, including stress management. Acupuncture is a technique used for balancing the flow of energy or life force known as “chi” believed to flow through pathways in your body. This is used for many reasons such as; chemotherapy induced pain/vomiting/nausea, dental pain, headaches, back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis, menstrual cramps, and respiratory disorders. You should not go to acupuncture if you have a pacemaker, a bleeding disorder, or are pregnant.
Dry Needling vs. Acupuncture
Both of these procedures are similar in the fact that they both use needles to localize and manage pain. Physical therapy in Royal Oak, MI uses dry needling attempt to release tension from knots and pressure points in muscles. Acupuncturists use needles to release endorphins and affect the nervous system. Many researchers have studied acupuncture as a complementary treatment for many conditions; dry needling is a newer practice, and the evidence of it working is less known. People have used acupuncture for many centuries, and it is now a regulated practice. Dry needling has been more recently developed, and there aren’t many official guidelines for safety. Acupuncture can be used for many different medical conditions. Dry needling is used to relieve tightness and pain in your muscles. Practitioners believe that putting a needle directly into the affected area’s knot/pressure point will release tension in the muscle.
Figuring out which practice works best for you is something that you and your doctor will have to work through together over time. Your treatment plan will take some trial and error and a lot of time until you feel some release in the area that has pain. Empower Physical Therapy ,physical therapy in Royal Oak, MI, has physicians to help you through these issues and help you manage pain and live a better, more functional life.
