Detailed Information On Physical Therapy
Physical Therapists have been using Manual Therapy for years in their practice to help patients recover from pain and move more freely. Now days a lot of PT's are starting to practice Intramuscular Manual Therapy , also known as Trigger Point Dry Needling. As part of our Physical Therapy Continuing Education interview series, we recently spoke with a Dry Needling Specialist. More on physical therapy schools here.
http://www.mblyp.com/physical-therapy-schools/
Here is what he said:
Interviewer: If we talk a little bit more on the treatment side, in your practice is this something you use commonly with your patients? Do you pretty much use this on every patient and if so what sort of injuries in your opinion seem to respond well to the dry needling and which ones would you stay away from?
Dry Needling Specialist: Another great question. Well, practitioners that know me they know that I probably needle everything that moves! But its honestly effective with any orthopedic condition whether you're looking at an acute injury in an athlete or a chronic problem an athlete experiences, as well as the regular population.
For me the biggest contraindication is a patients overall health. But you could argue that any treatment that you're going to do with someone thats unhealthy may not be as effective.
Why we use trigger point dry needling is honestly to save time, to have a greater effect, and to reach tissues that we cant reach all the time with our hands to release them with soft tissue techniques. An isometric contraction, status post relaxation type of thing with this activation of the muscle and getting it to relax after contraction.
So, were finding that with any of these orthopedic conditions that we see in the clinic there's always going to be a neuromuscular component to that. The way we explain it in our courses is that the joint is a passive system. We focused a lot of our training and education on joint pathology and discopathology, and again these are passive players in movement and they are passive to the muscular movement or activation. If a muscle has dysfunction in it its going to almost obviously effect the joint as well as any of the other tissue that it might be compressing if we have a tight muscle.
So, the way we utilize it in our clinic is daily. Not every treatment, because we are getting more quickly into the rehab side. Thats kind of the goal with this treatment is to more quickly or hasten our progress into the rehabilitation side of care.
All our patients end up with a program thats specific to them for rehab but in my view we really cant strengthen a muscle that has pain in it or that is inhibited or not functioning correctly. So, with this needle were able to kind of reset that neuromyofascial or that neuromuscular junction and get this muscle functioning at a better level and reduce the pain associated with that muscle, and then get them into rehab more quickly.
http://www.mblyp.com/physical-therapy-schools/
Here is what he said:
Interviewer: If we talk a little bit more on the treatment side, in your practice is this something you use commonly with your patients? Do you pretty much use this on every patient and if so what sort of injuries in your opinion seem to respond well to the dry needling and which ones would you stay away from?
Dry Needling Specialist: Another great question. Well, practitioners that know me they know that I probably needle everything that moves! But its honestly effective with any orthopedic condition whether you're looking at an acute injury in an athlete or a chronic problem an athlete experiences, as well as the regular population.
For me the biggest contraindication is a patients overall health. But you could argue that any treatment that you're going to do with someone thats unhealthy may not be as effective.
Why we use trigger point dry needling is honestly to save time, to have a greater effect, and to reach tissues that we cant reach all the time with our hands to release them with soft tissue techniques. An isometric contraction, status post relaxation type of thing with this activation of the muscle and getting it to relax after contraction.
So, were finding that with any of these orthopedic conditions that we see in the clinic there's always going to be a neuromuscular component to that. The way we explain it in our courses is that the joint is a passive system. We focused a lot of our training and education on joint pathology and discopathology, and again these are passive players in movement and they are passive to the muscular movement or activation. If a muscle has dysfunction in it its going to almost obviously effect the joint as well as any of the other tissue that it might be compressing if we have a tight muscle.
So, the way we utilize it in our clinic is daily. Not every treatment, because we are getting more quickly into the rehab side. Thats kind of the goal with this treatment is to more quickly or hasten our progress into the rehabilitation side of care.
All our patients end up with a program thats specific to them for rehab but in my view we really cant strengthen a muscle that has pain in it or that is inhibited or not functioning correctly. So, with this needle were able to kind of reset that neuromyofascial or that neuromuscular junction and get this muscle functioning at a better level and reduce the pain associated with that muscle, and then get them into rehab more quickly.