Keeping Austin Active and Pain-Free with Dry Needling
Dry needling, the modern approach to pain! Dry needling is the use of thin filiform needles (acupuncture needles) placed carefully into the muscle belly to release a trigger point. Usually a “twitch response” is elicited, causing short term soreness; yet patients report of reduced muscle spasms, reduced pain, improved joint mobility and improved athletic performance. Sessions can vary from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the patient’s need. CC Dry Needling & PT has over 17 years of experience in PT, and treated over 5000 patients (since 2016 when it was recognized in Texas as a PT modality).
TOP 3 PAIN PATTERNS WE TREAT
1. NECK AND SHOULDER PAIN
Let’s face it. Stress and poor posture are the main reasons for trigger points along the neck and shoulders. If you have tried pain creams, chiropractic adjustments, or massages and you still have pain, try dry needling. Most patients feel a big difference after ONE treatment.
2. LOW BACK PAIN 
Trigger points along the muscles of the lumbar spine can sometimes refer to different areas of the body and cause common pain syndromes similar sciatica and other nerve impingement patterns. Studies show that the quadratus lumborum, psoas and thoracolumbar muscles develop fascial tightness and need to be released. If you have a true disc herniation, dry needling the muscles supporting your back can help improve your core and back stability.
3. BUTTOCK and LEG PAIN 
Repeated poor lower body mechanics fatigues the muscles and it shows up as gluteus medius or glute minimus syndrome. The pain is dull and achy and sometimes even leads to knee pain. When foam rolling and yoga stretches are just not cutting it, try dry needling! Dry needling along the Glut Med, glut min and down the ITBand helps tremendously. It can sound a little scary, but the needles are as thin as a hair. Bleeding does not happen often.
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What Other Conditions Can Dry Needling Help?
- Tension headaches
- IT Band syndrome
- Low Back Pain
- Carpal Tunnel syndrome
- Radiculopathy
- Pelvic Floor Pain
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Shoulder Tendonitis
- Patellar tendonitis
- Tennis Elbow/ Golfers Elbow
- TMJ
- Fibromyalgia
Your first visit will include:
- Quick evaluation
- Up to 20 needles inserted along (possibly above and below the affected area)
- Electrical stimulation connected to the needles
- Massage
- Cupping
- Contract and relax techniques to get the muscle to reset
- Home Exercise Program
What Are The Benefits of Dry Needling?
- Increases blood flow to the muscle with nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide
- Reduces muscle spasm by releasing anti-inflammatory cytokines and
- Facilitates more muscle to fire by balancing the amount of acetylocholine between the nerve and muscle junction
- Improves range of motion by relaxing endogenous muscle guarding
- Acts as a local analgesic (compared to pain pills)
- Desensitizes the central and peripheral nervous system
And Dry Needling Treats The Nervous System Too
Dry needling is, without question, the most powerful tool Physical Therapists have at their disposal to quickly and effectively regulate the central and autonomic nervous systems toward homeostasis, which, in turn, regulates our muscle health. Without autonomic homeostasis, nothing in our body works properly. Remember, the overall effect of needling, almost regardless of how it is performed, results in sympathetic depression below baseline and parasympathetic elevation above baseline. This works out well for us since basically all physical therapy patients present with sympathetic hyperactivity. This works especially well if you specifically target the parasympathetics with needles, along with whatever else you are needling.
All conditions do better with a more homeostatic autonomic nervous system, and stimulating the vagus nerve is the most powerful place we can access with needles to directly induce autonomic homeostasis. It helps regulate the primary axes of the autonomic nervous system, including the trigeminocervical complex, which when sympathetically hyperactive causes widespread dysfunction in numerous brain regions, including the locus coeruleus, a main epinephrine producer.
At CC Dry Needling, we not only treat the musculoskeletal system, we treat the nervous system to improve healing. Ask us how to incorporate this into your plan of care. We’re here to help.
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What Our Clients Say
“I’ve had chronic back pain for my entire adult life. As a busy mom and a nurse, I’vefound that dry needling therapy has improved my life. Now, within 4 sessions, I can play with my kids and can work without pain.”
Amanda
Nurse/Mom
“I am a runner, Dry needling has done wonders for me. Ive tried everything, AND this has provided the most relief and improved my performance, I definitely recommend this for all athletes .”
Ross, Runner
“I injured my shoulder after climbing. When I first came in, I was at about 20%. now I’m at about 80% after 3 treatments. Dry needling works. ”
