Dry needling releases the trigger point.
Relief starts at the first visit.
A fine needle reaches the trigger point, the muscle releases, and the pain eases.
A trigger point is a contracted band of muscle.
A trigger point is a band of muscle fibers that stays contracted and refers pain in a predictable pattern, often away from the band itself. Stretching lengthens the muscle around it but does not release the band. Massage works from the surface. Medication reduces the pain and leaves the trigger point in place.
Inside an active trigger point the tissue is more acidic and carries higher levels of inflammatory chemicals than the surrounding muscle. A fine needle reaches the band. The band twitches, a spinal reflex that confirms the needle has reached the trigger point, and the muscle releases. Blood flow returns and the muscle moves through its full range again. Nothing is injected. The word dry means the needle itself is the treatment.
How a visit works.
Where the pain is felt is often not where the trigger point sits. The referral pattern is traced back to the muscle producing it.
A fine needle reaches the trigger point. A brief twitch confirms the needle is in the band.
The muscle releases and blood flow returns. The referred pain eases and movement comes back.
Which conditions dry needling treats.
Dry needling is used on every condition treated at Acunatomy where a contracted muscle is part of the pain: low back, neck, shoulder, hip, knee, heel, sciatica, headache, tendon pain and post-surgical guarding.
Select a condition to see how each is treated.
Don’t see your condition? Ask. You’ll get a clear answer before you book.
What it feels like.
The needle is thinner than a hypodermic needle, and entry through the skin is often not felt. When the needle reaches the trigger point the muscle twitches once, with a deep ache that lasts seconds.
Treated muscles can feel sore for 24 to 48 hours, like after a hard workout. Range of motion is rechecked before you leave.
Trained in the Travell and Simons method.
Eugene Baek’s clinical foundations in dry needling are built on the methodologies of Travell and Simons, Dommerholt, Fernández-de-las-Peñas, McGill, Gunn, and Baldry, the researchers who defined trigger point science. His training spans rehabilitation centers, orthopedic practices, and elite athletic settings, across two decades of identifying pain patterns that are easy to miss.
Dry needling is central to how Acunatomy treats pain.
Dry needling releases the muscle.
Acupuncture calms the nervous system.
A released trigger point can still sit in a nervous system that has become sensitive to pain. Acupuncture lowers that sensitivity, which is why both are used in one visit.
Where does it hurt?
Or find it on the body →Common questions about dry needling.
Yes. Dry needling releases trigger points: contracted bands of muscle that refer pain in predictable patterns and restrict movement. Clinical trials support it for neck pain, tennis elbow, plantar heel pain, and shoulder restriction, and trials show the strongest effect in the first 12 weeks (Gattie, 2017). In a 108-patient trial for tennis elbow, dry needling outperformed corticosteroid injection at six months (Uygur, 2021). Results depend on a trigger point being the true cause of the pain, which is what the assessment determines.
The word dry distinguishes it from a wet injection: nothing is injected, and no medication is involved. The needle itself is the treatment. A thin filament needle goes into the trigger point, and the mechanical stimulus, not a drug, is what releases the band.
A brief, deep ache or cramp typically marks the moment the needle reaches the trigger point, often with a quick muscle twitch, followed by a sense of release. The twitch is a spinal reflex confirming the needle found the trigger point rather than healthy muscle, and it is part of how the band releases; not every effective treatment produces dramatic twitches. The ache lasts seconds and is deep rather than sharp. Soreness afterward, similar to a hard workout, is normal for a day or two.
Dry needling is the more direct choice when the problem is a specific tight spot you can point to. Acupuncture is the broader tool when pain involves the nervous system: widespread sensitivity, stress-driven pain, or pain that outlasts the injury. At Acunatomy the two are combined, because a trigger point and a sensitized nervous system are often present together. See the full comparison →
A needle reaches the trigger point directly, at its depth; massage works from the surface. For trigger points that keep returning no matter how much massage you get, that difference matters: the twitch response releases the muscle in a way surface pressure cannot.
Yes, performed by a trained, licensed practitioner, dry needling is safe. The most common side effects are temporary: muscle soreness for a day or two, occasional light bruising, sometimes brief fatigue. In a survey of 7,629 dry needling treatments, no serious event occurred; about one in five treatments had a minor effect, mostly bruising or bleeding at the needle site (Brady, 2014). Sterile, single-use needles are standard.
Light activity is fine and helps the soreness clear; a maximal effort session is better saved for the next day. Treated muscles can feel sore or heavy for 24 to 48 hours. Athletes typically schedule needling after training or on lighter days.
Cortisone suppresses inflammation chemically; dry needling releases the contracted tissue itself without injecting anything. Cortisone can give fast relief but does not release a trigger point, and repeated injections carry tissue effects that limit their use. If your pain traces to a trigger point, needling treats the tissue rather than muting the signal.
A single trigger point often responds within one to three sessions. Longstanding patterns, where one trigger point has spread to neighboring muscles over months or years, take longer because each layer has to be addressed. You should feel measurable change early; no change within a few visits is a signal to reassess, not to repeat.