Dry Needling vs. Acupuncture what's the difference?

You may have seen or heard of dry needling or acupuncture before. Those who have had it would know

that it isn’t as scary or painful as it might look. Both dry needling and acupuncture use small sterile

needles which are positioned into specific points on your body to help relieve pain.

We often get asked: “what is the difference between acupuncture and dry needling?” the answer to this

is “the philosophy”.

Dry needling involves inserting needles into or near trigger points in muscles, tendons and fascia

(connective tissue). Trigger points are sensitive areas of taught or hyper contracted tissue, which when

released with needles help relieve pain and tension. Dry needling can be used to treat many kinds of

pain and injuries to most parts of the body including: the back, neck, shoulder, arm, hip, knee, and

ankle.

Acupuncture on the other hand is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine; it uses needles inserted into

meridian points on the body to help align flow of energy also referred to as Qi (Chi). The idea behind

acupuncture is that correcting the flow of Qi will improve the function of specific organs and tissues to

help relieve symptoms and pain.

Interestingly, studies comparing dry needling and acupuncture have found that therapists from both

disciplines needle points which are very similar on the body. So essentially, both disciplines insert

needles into similar areas of the body to relieve pain (and other symptoms in the case of acupuncture)

for different reasons.

At Physio Room, we specialize in using dry needling as a part of our multifaceted treatment approach. It

is one of our therapists many tools they can use to get you pain free and back to enjoying life to the

fullest. If you are interested in dry needling or have any aches or pains that need attention book in with

one of our friendly physiotherapists either online through the booking link or call 8065 1970.

Physio Room Pymble