If dry needling and trigger point injections are all new practices to you, you probably aren’t sure what the difference is between the two or which is better. The two both have similar risk factors, treat similar conditions and have similar results, so its no surprise you may have been getting mixed results when comparing the two. Let’s take a closer look at the two and see which one might better suit you. 

So, what is the difference between trigger point injection therapy and dry needling? As mentioned previously, both treatments are performed in a similar manner and are used to relieve pain symptoms in your muscles.

Dry needling inserts tiny, sterile needles into the muscles to stimulate your body’s natural healing process. Injection therapy does a similar thing however, it has the addition of local anaesthetic and steroids being injected into the muscles to relieve pain and help function in the affected area. 

What is dry needling?

As mentioned previously, dry needling is a practice in which tiny needles are inserted into your muscles, causing them and the surrounding tissue to contract and relax, stimulating the muscles and body. This helps to speed up your body’s natural healing process and ease pain in the affected area. This type of therapy works well to ease musculoskeletal pain and pain in the hips, legs, shoulder kneck and back. 

What are trigger point injections?

Trigger point injection has a similar use to dry needling therapy in that it can be used to ease musculoskeletal pain, and it is applied directly to sore trigger points. These trigger points are found in different parts of the body, depending on the source of your pain; they can also sometimes be found under the knots in your skin. Similarly to dry needling, needles will be inserted in the areas of pain; however, when using trigger point injections, you will be injected with steroids and sometimes a minor anaesthetic to quickly reduce your pain. 

Aside from some of the key differences already mentioned, there are a couple of other key things that should be noted. Following your dry needling treatment course, you should be fine to drive and perform activities as usual; however, after injection therapy, you may not be able to drive safely. 

What can dry needling and trigger point therapy injections be used to treat?

We have spoken briefly about some of the things that dry needling and trigger point therapies can treat. As mentioned previously, these can both be used to treat a variety of musculoskeletal conditions, including:

• Sports injuries 
• Arthritis
• Scar tissue
• Poor function or range of motion in joints and muscles 
• Muscle injuries
• Headaches and migraines 
• Relieve muscular stiffness

There are some things that injection therapy can be used to treat where dry needling can not; these include: fibromyalgia, tension headaches and myofascial pain.

What are the side effects of Dry Needling or Trigger Point Injections?

As with the treatments they offer, dry needling and trigger point injection therapy also offer similar side effects. Fortunately, they are uncommon and, in most cases, mild when they are felt. Due to the nature of the treatment, the most common side effect felt is soreness or numbness in the site of the injection; there can also, on occasion, be some minor bruising, redness or bleeding here. Some of the other side effects that can come with this form of treatment are fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting. 

While there aren’t many side effects of the two treatments, there are still some instances that people should know about and avoid them where possible. These include:

• People who have blood disorders
• People taking blood thinners 
• Diabetic people 
• Pregnant people 
• People with lymphedema or epilepsy
• Anyone with a strong fear of needles 

So, these two different types of treatment are both similar in what they treat and even their side effects. The main difference between them is that trigger point injection therapy is typically most often used to treat more painful conditions that haven’t responded to more conservative forms of treatment. 

If you would like to expand your knowledge and learn about acupuncture or dry needling, take a look at some of the training courses that we offer.