Pinpointing the pain: What is dry needling?
Kristin Emery/For The Almanac
Mason Tupta, DPT, owner of DirectPhysioTherapy, demonstrates the dry needling procedure.
Kristin Emery/For The Almanac
Mason Tupta demonstrates the dry needling procedure.
Kristin Emery/For The Almanac
Dry needling, also known as myofascial point dry needling, is a natural treatment for chronic and acute pain and can be used by physical therapists as part of a larger treatment plan.
Kristin Emery/For The Almanac
Mason Tupta, DPT, owner of DirectPhysioTherapy, with a patient at his Castle Shannon practice
When it comes to pain relief, most of us would be a bit hesitant about the idea of someone treating you by sticking tiny needles into various parts of your body.
You might think they mean acupuncture, which has been around for nearly 3,000 years. Now, a similar procedure called dry needling is growing in popularity across the country and right here in Pennsylvania. Dry needling does share some similarities with acupuncture, which is based in Eastern medicine and focuses on balance and restoring proper energy flow through the body. Dry needling uses the same insertion of thin needles, but that’s where the similarities end.
What is it?
Dry needling, also known as myofascial point dry needling, is a natural treatment for chronic and acute pain and can be used by physical therapists as part of a larger treatment plan. Both dry needling and acupuncture use thin, monofilament needles. In acupuncture, the insertion points are determined by ancient Chinese medicine using different points to balance energy through your body, and the needles are often left in place for up to 30 minutes.
By contrast, dry needling was developed in the 1980s based on Western medicine and uses needles to release trigger points in muscles.
“It’s very similar to acupuncture. The difference is dry needling has to be performed by a medical provider,” explains Mason Tupta, owner of Direct PhysioTherapy in Castle Shannon. “We call it dry because there’s no medication involved. It’s just a plain, sterile monofilament needle.”
Tupta earned his doctor of physical therapy at Duquesne University, is a certified manual trigger point therapist and is certified in dry needling.
“What we do is look for trigger points, which are just types of dense muscle tissue,” Tupta says. “Once we find those, we insert the fine needle into the muscle, and the idea is we’re trying to release shortened bands of muscle fibers. If you have trigger points, the muscle is compromised; there’s less blood flow to it. It can cause localized and radiating pain.”
Tupta has begun offering dry needling in his practice and uses it to treat patients for many issues, including chronic and acute pain and musculoskeletal issues like pain in the shoulders, neck, hip, back and feet.
“A lot of people think when you have referral pain, they think just nerve or discs in their back,” says Tupta. “But a lot of times muscles can refer a lot of nerve-like symptoms, and so dry needling is one of the treatments we use to really increase blood flow and relieve pain.”
Is it safe?
Dry needling can be used for a wide variety of issues, and Tupta says one difference between acupuncture and dry needling is how deep the needles penetrate tissue. With acupuncture, the needles only penetrate the skin. In dry needling, Tupta says the needle goes deeper into the muscle tissue where he’s looking for those trigger points. Once he finds them, he’ll try to elicit a “twitch” response. You’ll know when it happens because you can feel a twitch as the muscle releases its tightness.
Dry needling has been proven safe and effective and must be performed by a certified medical provider. A growing number of physical therapy providers have started offering dry needling as part of treatment. Tupta often pairs dry needling with manual manipulation, heat and stretching to treat problem areas of pain. So far, insurance companies have been reluctant to offer coverage or reimbursement for the treatments, so you’ll have to pay for it out of pocket. Tupta says treatments typically cost around $90.
Does it work?
The idea of releasing the trigger points in our muscles is very much like the approach that massage therapists use.
“Very similar, except instead of pressing on the outer skin, instead of us using our thumb to maybe work that kink out, we’ll use that dry needle and needle right through that muscle,” says Tupta. “Then what will typically happen is, the muscle will actually twitch if you hit a true trigger point. It will twitch involuntarily and that is what releases the muscle tension, and you can actually visually see the twitch happen.”
Many patients report a decrease in pain and discomfort after only one treatment while others come in for weekly or monthly ongoing sessions. One other plus is that dry needling benefits can last longer than the relief you feel after a massage.
“There are studies that show that dry needling outcomes are much longer versus just short-term temporary relief,” Tupta adds. Many of his patients are people who have undergone dry needling while living in other states and are just now finding it in Pennsylvania.
“Down South it’s very prevalent because it’s been around and been legal for years and years,” Tupta says. “So, people have had it and then they come up here and they look for it and they can’t find it because it hadn’t been easily available yet.”
Tupta opened his practice in 2019 with a goal of changing the way the public views and receives physical therapy by incorporating more hands-on, manual physical therapy in addition to therapeutic exercise. Now, dry needling is often part of an overall treatment plan.
“A lot of physical therapy is solely exercise-based, right? You have knee pain, you come in you do your knee exercises, and that’s it,” he says. “We do a full body analysis. If you have a knee problem, we look at your ankle, foot, hip, the joints above and below to see how they may be affecting that issue. There are a lot of manual techniques that we can use to restore joint function, help with swelling and help decrease pain.”