I’ve been having pain in my shoulder for months. My neighbor thinks dry needling is for me. I had never heard of that. Is it like acupuncture?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
In acupuncture, needles are inserted into meridians. Those would be a kind of energy channels, but they have never been found by a doctor or anatomist. There have been many studies in which the pricking of needles by random ‘practitioners’ has been found to be just as effective as the pricking by an acupuncturist. In other words, if it does anything, it’s probably a placebo effect.
With dry needling, needles are inserted into small, hardened, painful strands or bumps in the muscles of, for example, your back, legs and shoulders (myogelosen). By pricking them, they would disappear (earlier). There is no evidence for this. Most doctors do not believe in dry needling and, just like with acupuncture, accidents sometimes happen, such as puncturing a lung (causing a collapsed lung) or puncturing a joint (after which an artificial joint can become infected and must be removed). Good to know: without treatment, the symptoms always go away on their own after a while.
Dry needling is an alternative treatment often performed by physiotherapists. You can expect more knowledge of anatomy from a physiotherapist than from an acupuncturist – that is not a protected title, everyone can call themselves an acupuncturist. Performed by a physiotherapist, it is covered by some additional insurance policies.
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