CRMC Now Offering Dry Needling Treatment

Cookeville Regional Medical Center Sports Medicine is now offering a new form of treatment called dry needling.

Dry needling inserts thin and flimsy needles into the skin at strategic locations to relieve pain. Sports Physical Therapist Dr. David Maldonado said dry needling is similar to acupuncture.

“Dry needling is the Western medicine approach to essentially the same without the adherence to the Chinese locations alone,” Maldonado said.

Dry needling is used to relieve pain for headaches, hip pain, back pain, and various other aches and pains. Maldonado said he got his certification in dry needling due to seeing patients wrestle with the idea of different forms of treatment.

“For me, it certainly does expand the toolbox, There can be conditions that people will have that they might have had traditional therapy, who knows chiropractic, who knows what avenues someone might have taken and not received a benefit from it.”

Maldonado said the benefit of dry needling is that it provides faster pain relief.

“It’s sometimes is a fast food world,” Maldonado said. “And you know we want results quick and we don’t want to wait for the commercial, and those type of things that is something that can fast track people’s responses.”

Maldonado said people battling pain and wanting to exercise can receive dry needling to help them get back to exercising. Dry Needling in 2001 was considered not in the scope of therapy by the Tennessee Board of Physical Therapy. In 2011 that decision was reversed and has been legal since.

Maldonado said people who are afraid of needles respond well to the treatment if they can overcome the fear.

“If they can overcome the initial part,” Maldonado said. then they will typically be fans of the process because it’s quite subtle in comparison.”