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Myofascial Triggerpoint Needling is a technique for the treatment of pain and movement impairments. The technique uses a “dry”needle, one without medication or injection, inserted through the skin into areas of the muscle.

Myofascial Triggerpoint Needling is not acupuncture, a practice based on traditional Chinese medicine and performed by acupuncturists. Dry needling is a part of modern Western medicine principles, and supported by research.

What is a Trigger Point?

A trigger point is a taut band of skeletal muscle located within a larger muscle group. Trigger points can be tender to the touch, and touching a trigger point may cause pain to other parts of the body.

What Kind of Needles Are Used?

Dry needling involves a thin filiform needle that penetrates the skin and stimulates underlying myofascial trigger points and muscular and connective tissues. The needle allows a therapist to target tissues that are not manually palpable.

The therapist wears gloves and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when dry needling, consistent with standard precautions for infection prevention. The sterile needles are disposed of in a medical sharps collector.

Why Myofascial Triggerpoint Needling ?

In cases when dry needling is used by a therapist, it is typically one technique that’s part of a larger treatment plan. Therapists use dry needling with the goal of releasing or inactivating trigger points to relieve pain or improve range of motion. Preliminary research supports that dry needling improves pain control, reduces muscle tension, and normalises dysfunctions of the motor end plates, the sites at which nerve impulses are transmitted to muscles. This can help speed up the patient’s return to active rehabilitation.

As part of their education, therapists are well educated in anatomy and therapeutic treatment of the body. Therapists who perform dry needling supplement that knowledge by obtaining specific postgraduate education and training. When choosing a  therapist for dry needling treatment, be sure to ask about their specific experience and education. You can be confident that all therapists listed on the ANMT website for Myofascial Triggerpoint Needling have completed approved training.

Doctors, physical and occupational therapists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, acupuncturists, nurses and massage therapists have been using FSM over the past few years to successfully treat scar tissue, tendonitis, ligament injuries, nerve pain, fractures, peripheral neuropathies, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome and many other medical conditions associated with inflammation.

Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) uses a device which has two independent channels that allow the therapist to set both the frequency and the current independently for each channel. Frequencies are measured in hertz or pulses per second. The frequencies are used on two channels and it makes a difference what channel you put which frequency on. The frequency thought to neutralise the condition is put on Precision channel A or on the channel that fires first. The frequency thought to address the tissue is put on channel B. There are frequencies for over 200 conditions from very common conditions like inflammation and scar tissue and mineral deposits and toxicity to very unusual and hard to document conditions. There are a few frequencies that are used as A/B pairs. A is not a condition, B is not a tissue but the combination of the two frequencies has the therapeutic effect. There is one such frequency combination that takes away shingles pain. When it is used before the blisters break out for an hour a day for three days, the pain is gone in 20 minutes and the blisters never break out. When it is used after the blisters break out it takes the pain away and shortens the course of the shingles. Shingles is the only thing this specific frequency is good for and so far there is no one it has not worked on.