“Dry Needling” and Physical Therapy
Question: My trip to the orthopedic doctor ended with some hopeful solutions. As of now, surgery is not an option for my neck & spine issues. He did recommend "dry puncture" physical therapy. What is it?
Dr. Bruno’s Response: Dry needling is a technique that is sometimes used to break up muscle spasms. To my knowledge, know one really knows how it works!
Typically, a much more effective technique is injecting local anesthetic, sometimes with a steroid, into the muscles that are in spasm. Then the physical therapist can put their thumb into the specimen and break it up. If bleeding is not an issue I would recommend you talk to your doctor about a local anesthetic injection or deep tissue massage.