Benefits of Dry Needling Therapy

Baptist Health La Grange: Benefits of Dry Needling Therapy

Physician assistant Janet Scherzer, PA-C, and therapist Brittney Talley define dry needling, explaining how it’s combined with traditional therapy to relieve headache and muscle pain.

Benefits of Dry Needling Therapy Health Talks Transcript

Janet Scherzer, PA-C, Family Medicine, Baptist Health Crestwood
Dry needling is a physical therapy treatment option for musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions.

Brittney Talley, MPT, CEAS, IDN, Physical Therapy, Baptist Health Crestwood
Dry needling is used for any type of muscular inflammatory process going on in your body, and what it does is, it creates a lesion in that muscle, so that the inflammatory response has a way to kind of pass through that lesion. Your body just absorbs it naturally, and that starts the healing process. We use a thin filament of a needle. It is very flexible, so that it pushes through the skin. It does not cut through the skin, so it is virtually painless. Occasionally you will get a twitch response in the muscle, which is a normal response. We incorporate it with other physical therapy — traditional treatments such as ultrasound, manual treatments, therapeutic exercises, range of motion strengthening and stabilization.

Scherzer
I refer patients for dry needling that have migraine headaches, tension headaches, muscle strains, muscle spasms, low back pain that’s acute or chronic, and then sciatica impingement issues. My patients have benefited greatly with the dry needling. They actually have had total pain resolution from the dry needling. They’re able to come off their medication and still do their daily stretches.

Talley
Dry needling is a technique that has proven to get people back to their normal lives at a much faster rate.