Dry needling treats one muscle at a time. A thin filiform needle — the same kind used in Acupuncture, and nothing is injected through it, which is where the name comes from — goes directly into a myofascial trigger point: the taut, tender band inside a muscle that stays contracted and refers pain somewhere else.
The needle disrupts that band mechanically. You often feel a brief cramp or twitch as it lets go. That local twitch response is what the clinician is looking for, not a sign something went wrong. Once the band releases, the muscle can lengthen and take load properly again — which is why dry needling is almost always paired with movement rather than done on its own.
At Mountain View Pain Center it is performed by physical therapists and chiropractors who hold post-graduate certification in the technique, as part of a Physical Therapy or Chiropractic visit.
It works on muscle. That makes it precise where the problem is one identifiable structure you can put a finger on, and the wrong choice where the problem is widespread or coming from a nerve.
Short. Your clinician finds the trigger point by hand — pressing on it usually reproduces the pain you came in with, which is how they know they have the right one — and then puts the needle into it. The needle does not stay in long, and a session treats a small number of points rather than a whole region.
Afterwards the area often feels bruised or worked for a day or two. That is normal, and it settles. You will usually be told to keep moving and to hold off a hard session with that muscle group until the soreness passes. Most people notice a difference within one to three sessions per area. If three sessions change nothing, that is useful information — the plan should change rather than the needling simply continuing.
Same needle, different job. Acupuncture is a complete system of care practiced by a licensed acupuncturist and aimed at the whole pain picture — including sleep, stress and the tension patterns feeding the pain cycle. Dry needling is one technique aimed at one knotted muscle. Neither replaces the other, and plenty of plans use both.
A third option gets confused with these two as well: a trigger-point injection uses a needle to deliver local anesthetic into the same kind of knot. That is a procedure rather than a technique, and it is the only one of the three that injects anything.
Needles are sterile and single-use, and are thrown away after one insertion. Serious problems are rare. What is common is minor: soreness for a day, a small bruise, occasionally a brief lightheaded feeling — more likely on an empty stomach, so eat something first.
Tell your clinician if you take a blood thinner, if you are pregnant or might be, if you have a bleeding disorder or a weakened immune system, if you have an implanted device, or if the skin over the area is broken or infected. None of these automatically rules it out, but they change where and how the technique is used — and they are worth saying at the start of the visit rather than partway through.
Dry needling is aimed at a taut, tender band in a muscle that reproduces your symptoms when it is pressed. No such finding, no reason to needle. It is also the wrong tool when the muscle is guarding because of something upstream — quieting it without addressing the driver only buys a short reprieve, so your therapist also treats what is causing it.
It is not used over an area of infection or broken skin, over a recent surgical site, or where there is significant lymphoedema in the limb. If you are on blood thinning medication, or have a bleeding disorder, say so before rather than after — it does not necessarily rule the treatment out, but it changes which areas are treated and how.
It is avoided in pregnancy at certain sites, and it is not done on anyone who does not want it. A genuine fear of needles is a perfectly good reason to take a different route to the same muscle, and there are several.
The common experience is soreness in the treated muscle for up to a day or two, sometimes more than the soreness you came in with. Bruising is frequent and harmless. A twitch response during treatment is expected and is not a complication.
Some people feel tired, lightheaded or briefly unwell straight afterwards. It passes, but it is worth not driving immediately if it happens to you, and worth telling us so the next session is adjusted.
Uncommon: bleeding, and infection at the site, which is why single-use sterile needles are used and the skin is prepared. The one serious risk, and the reason technique and anatomy matter, is needling over the ribcage: puncturing the lung lining is rare but real. Sharp chest pain or shortness of breath after treatment of the upper back, chest wall or shoulder needs assessment straight away, not a wait-and-see.
Dry needling is available at every Mountain View Pain Center clinic in Colorado and Arizona. It is used as a modality alongside Chiropractic and Physical Therapy rather than as a treatment booked on its own.
That matters for a treatment delivered in a course rather than a single visit. You should be able to go to the clinic nearest your home or your work without the plan changing, and you should not have to travel to a procedure site for something that does not need one.
If a different step turns out to be the right one, the interventional procedures are performed in office at Northglenn, north Colorado Springs, Mesa and Glendale, and any clinic can arrange that for you. Spine injections are also performed at Lowry on specific days.
We would rather be straight about this one. Part B covers Acupuncture, including dry needling, only for chronic low back pain: pain lasting 12 weeks or longer, with no known cause, and not associated with surgery or pregnancy. Commercial plans vary widely: some cover it as part of a Physical Therapy or Chiropractic visit, some exclude it specifically, and some are silent.
What that means practically is that the answer depends on your plan rather than on the treatment, and it is a question worth asking before a course starts rather than after. Your benefits are checked in advance — before the visit, not after — so you are not finding out what something costs afterwards. See insurance for the plans each state's clinics bill directly.
Where the visit it forms part of is covered, the visit is billed in the normal way. Referrals are not required, workers' compensation is accepted at every location in both states, and auto injury claims are handled through med-pay or a lien we hold directly.
Every clinic below has Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, Acupuncture and Pain Management on one chart, so care can move between them without a new referral.
Downtown out through the north, west, south and east suburbs.
Academy, InterQuest and Tenderfoot cover the north, central and south of the city.
Harmony in Fort Collins and our Greeley clinic serve Larimer and Weld counties.
Across the Valley, from the West Valley through Phoenix to the East Valley.
The needle itself is hair-thin and going in is usually barely felt. What you notice is the twitch — a brief cramp as the trigger point releases. It is over in a second, and it is the response the clinician is after.
Physical therapists and chiropractors who hold post-graduate certification in the technique. It is delivered inside your plan of care rather than booked as a separate appointment.
A trigger-point injection is a medical procedure that delivers local anesthetic, sometimes with an anti-inflammatory, into the knot. Dry needling injects nothing — the needle alone does the work.
Coverage varies by plan, and dry needling is generally handled through your Physical Therapy or Chiropractic benefits rather than billed as a service of its own. We check your benefits before your visit and tell you what to expect.
Often one to three per trigger-point area. If three sessions on the same spot have not changed anything, the plan should change with it rather than continuing.
Keep moving, but hold off a hard session with the treated muscle group for a day or two while the soreness settles. Your clinician will tell you what is sensible for your case.
No. You can request an evaluation directly in Colorado or Arizona, and the clinician decides at that visit whether dry needling belongs in your plan.
No. They use a similar thin filament needle and that is where the similarity ends. Dry needling is a Western musculoskeletal technique aimed at a taut, tender band in a specific muscle, chosen by examination findings and usually used within a Chiropractic or Physical Therapy visit. Acupuncture is its own discipline with its own diagnostic framework and its own training and licensure, and it is performed by a licensed acupuncturist. Mountain View Pain Center offers both, at every clinic in Colorado and Arizona, and they are not substitutes for one another. See Acupuncture.
Dry needling is available at Mountain View Pain Center clinics across Colorado and Arizona — see the full clinic map, Colorado or Arizona.
