Why doesn’t my doctor suggest dry needling? A brief history lesson
A brief history of dry needling
Dr. Janet Travell is the modern founder of trigger point therapy. This treatment is based on the idea that a knot in the muscle (or “trigger point”) can cause pain and that treating these trigger points with manual therapy can bring relief. As early as the 1940s, Dr. Travell and others were using hypodermic needles filled with Lidocaine, Novocain and other corticosteroids to inject areas of muscle spasm for patient relief.
In 1979, another doctor named Carl Lewit published research suggesting that the stimulation of a trigger point or spasm — also known as the twitch response — could be elicited with a solid, stainless steel needle. These findings supported the notion that there was no need to inject the body with any fluids for the procedure to work. Thus, the practice that we now know of as dry needling was born.
However, it wasn’t until the 2012 paper “Physical Therapists & the Performance of Dry Needling,'' that peer-reviewed research on dry needling was designed, conducted and published. This landmark paper defined the procedure as “an invasive technique used by physical therapists […] to treat myofascial pain that uses a dry needling, without medication or injections, which is inserted into areas of the muscle known as trigger points.” Today, thousands of peer-reviewed articles illustrate the efficacy of dry needling.
A brief history of acupuncture in the U.S.
There are clear differences between acupuncture and dry needling. The only thing they have in common is the use of a stainless steel, solid needle. The theory of what points to choose, the location of the points, and the goal of the treatment all differ.
Many medical providers in the U.S. are more familiar with acupuncture–mostly because it’s been in the vernacular in the U.S. for almost 50 years - but acupuncture as a medicine dates back over 4,000 years. It wasn’t until 1972 when New York Times reporter James Reston wrote about his experience with acupuncture while getting an emergency appendectomy in China. Thi
That same year the first legal acupuncture center in the U.S. was established, and in 1973 the IRS allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense (thanks, Tax Man.). In 1992, the US Congress created the Office of Alternative Medicine, and in 1999 the National Institutes of Health created the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Thousands of reviewed research articles have been authored supporting the efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of chronic and acute pain.
It wasn’t until 2020 when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) published needling only CPT codes (i.e., codes that allow insurance companies to reimburse providers). But acupuncture CPT codes have been published, and reimbursable since Jan. 1, 2005.
Why your doctor doesn’t suggest dry needling
Dry needling has been used by physical therapists for close to a decade. In the world of medicine, this makes it relatively new—and it always takes time for new treatment modalities to work their way into the mainstream.
So if you're wondering why your doctor hasn’t heard of dry needling or referred you To The Point PDX for treatment of your chronic or acute pain, it may be that the hundreds of research papers demonstrating its efficacy are still sitting unread on their desk.
Dry needling is an effective procedure for chronic pain, muscle spasms and hard-to-treat conditions.
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Dry needling is an effective treatment that can be administered by acupuncturists and/or physical therapists (depending on the state you live in). In Oregon, dry needling can only be performed by licensed acupuncturists. At To The Point PDX we have two acupuncturists who are highly trained in dry needling. Christina Lambert, L.Ac. completed 27 hours of training in dry needling and Dr. Sarah Stevens, L.Ac. is nationally certified in dry needling by Myopain Seminars.