Dry Needling Centennial, CO
- Targets Tight Muscles
- Improves Mobility
- Personalized Treatment
Dry needling at Axis Health and Wellness in Centennial is how Dr. Tony Nicholas releases a trigger point that will not let go on its own. A very thin needle goes into the tissue your exam points to, and that small amount of controlled trauma brings blood flow back into a spot your body had stopped repairing. The muscle releases, and the neck it was pulling on moves freely again.
You probably know the spot already. It sits in your upper trap, you can find it with your thumb, and leaning on it buys about a day before everything tightens back up. Massage helps for a while, heat helps for a while, and none of it holds.
What Is Dry Needling?
Dry needling places a very thin, solid needle directly into a myofascial trigger point, the tender knot you can feel in a muscle that has been contracted too long. The needles are closer to acupuncture needles than to anything you have seen at a lab, with no hollow center. Dr. Tony places each one into the tissue his exam identified, not wherever happens to be sore.
The name comes from what is missing. A wet needle carries something with it, such as cortisone or an anesthetic. A dry needle delivers nothing, so the needle itself is the treatment and the result comes from your body’s response rather than from a drug. That fits how this practice has run since 1997, without medication and without surgery.
How Dry Needling Works
The needle creates a very small amount of microtrauma in tissue your body had stopped repairing. It reads that as damage worth attending to and sends blood into the area, and blood is the delivery system for everything healing needs. The muscle then lets go of a contraction it could not release on its own.
A trigger point is rarely just a tight muscle, though. It stays contracted because something upstream keeps asking it to, which is the same reasoning behind SoftWave therapy, a treatment that provokes the same repair response using acoustic waves instead of a needle.
Dry Needling vs. Acupuncture: What Is the Difference?
The needles are the same, and that is roughly where it ends. Acupuncture comes out of Traditional Chinese Medicine and places needles along meridians, treating the body as a network of energy pathways. Dry needling comes out of Western anatomy and targets one specific muscle based on the physical problem in front of the doctor.
What you get at Axis Health and Wellness is the anatomical version, aimed at the tissue Dr. Tony found during your exam, which is also why the placement changes as those findings change.
Conditions We Treat With Dry Needling
Because Dr. Tony now works almost entirely in the cervical spine, dry needling here treats the neck and everything connected to it:
- Neck pain and stiffness
- Cervicogenic headaches
- Guarding after whiplash
- Neck related dizziness
- Upper trap tightness and spasm
- Restricted neck range of motion
The headache connection surprises most patients. Roughly nine out of ten headaches and migraines start in the upper neck, so a cervical muscle that refuses to release can leave pain spread across your whole head or parked behind one eye.
Desk work drives a lot of this in Centennial. Hours at a screen leave you in forward head posture, and every inch your head drifts forward asks those small neck muscles to carry more weight all day long.
Why Dr. Tony Uses Dry Needling Mainly on the Neck
This is the part other offices leave out. Dry needling here was once used across the whole body, on hips, knees, shoulders and feet. Then Dr. Tony brought SoftWave into the practice, and for most of those areas it produced better results in fewer visits, so he moved his patients over.
“I do it mostly now in the cervical area. I almost exclusively use SoftWave on any other areas on the body that I used to previously use dry needling for.”
Dr. Tony Nicholas, D.C.Most clinics add a tool and keep everything on the menu forever, because a longer service list looks like a better practice. Dr. Tony did the opposite. Come in with a knee problem or shoulder pain and you will be offered Shockwave therapy instead, and not because it costs more.
What a Dry Needling Session Looks Like at Our Centennial Office
Nothing about the visit is rushed, and nothing happens without Dr. Tony telling you what he is about to do and why.
- 1 He examines you and locates the tissue causing the problem. Needles do not go where it hurts. They go where the exam says the trouble is, and those are often two different places.
- 2 The skin over that area is cleaned, then the needle goes in. Nothing is injected, so there is no burn or spread of fluid the way there is with a shot.
- 3 Dr. Tony watches for the muscle to answer back with a small twitch. That reaction is the sign he reached the right tissue.
- 4 The needles come out and he carries on with the rest of your visit, adjusting the plan based on what that muscle just told him.
Dry needling is never a standalone service here. It is paired with a chiropractic adjustment, because a trigger point that keeps re-forming is usually guarding a joint underneath it, which is the same reason a good massage session only holds for a day or two.
How You Feel AfterwardLooser, right away, and usually before you are off the table. For about a day you may be a little sore in that spot, but it is the ordinary muscle ache you get from using something you had neglected. There are no restrictions afterward.
The one thing we ask is that you notice how long the relief lasts, because that number tells Dr. Tony whether the muscle is the real problem or only the messenger.
What to Tell Us Before Your First Session
None of the following rules you out. They change how Dr. Tony approaches the visit, and occasionally they mean he reaches for a different tool, so he needs to hear about them first:
- You take blood thinners or have a bleeding disorder.
- You are pregnant, or you think you might be.
- You have a genuine fear of needles. Dr. Tony will not push you through it when other options work.
- You have a skin infection, an open wound, or a rash over the area.
If your neck pain started with a car accident or a hard fall, you may need imaging before anyone touches the muscle, so a fracture or dislocation can be ruled out first. Dr. Tony’s first rule is to do no harm.
What Dry Needling Costs and How You Can Pay for It
Dry needling is not sold on its own here. It is one component of a care plan, so you do not book an appointment just for needles and you are not billed for them as a separate line.
Care plans run from conservative to more involved, and you choose the one that fits your budget. We accept all insurance except Medicaid, and we take HSA and FSA cards, CareCredit, Cherry, cash and credit cards, plus interest free payment plans in house.
If you would rather find out what is driving your neck pain before committing to anything, start with the $29 exam and treatment for new patients.
Why Centennial Patients Choose Axis Health and Wellness
Dr. Tony has been treating necks in this community since 1997, and the practice has changed its methods more than once when something better came along. That willingness to drop a technique is why dry needling is now used in one region of the body instead of ten.
You are re-evaluated as care progresses rather than handed a fixed package on day one. If nothing meaningful changes after eight or twelve visits, Dr. Tony says so and refers you out.
Dry Needling FAQs
Does dry needling hurt?
Most people feel very little at insertion and some feel nothing at all. The needle is thin enough to slip between tissue, and nothing is injected, so there is none of the stinging that comes with a shot. What you may feel is the muscle answering back with a deep ache or a quick twitch that passes in seconds. Dr. Tony works inside your pain tolerance.
Is dry needling safe?
It is safe when the person holding the needle knows what sits underneath it. The needles are solid and extremely thin, nothing is injected, and serious problems are rare. The risk people read about online is a collapsed lung, which comes from needling too deeply over the rib cage. Dr. Tony works in the neck and upper trap and places every needle based on the exam.
Does dry needling actually work?
For the right problem it works, and you do not have to take anyone’s word for it. Dr. Tony checks your range of motion before and after, so you can turn your head and decide for yourself in the same visit. When the muscle was never the real driver it does not work, and he changes the plan rather than repeating it.
How long does the relief last?
The first time it might be a day or two, and that is information rather than a failure. If the window of relief stretches out visit over visit, the trigger point was the problem and it is unwinding. If it collapses back within hours every time, the muscle is guarding something else, and the plan shifts toward the joint or the disc underneath it.
How many visits will I need?
There is no fixed number, and anyone who gives you one before examining you is guessing. How long the problem has been going on matters most, since a neck locked up for eight years does not behave like one that seized last week.
Is dry needling covered by insurance?
Coverage varies by plan, and many carriers, Medicare included, do not reimburse dry needling as its own service. Because we deliver it inside a care plan, that matters less than people expect. We accept all insurance except Medicaid and verify your benefits before your plan starts. The rest is laid out on our payment plans page.
Can dry needling help sciatica or low back pain?
Not here, and usually not anywhere. Sciatica almost always traces back to a disc or a nerve root in the low back rather than a knot in a muscle, so needling the muscle treats the symptom and leaves the source untouched. For leg pain along the sciatic nerve, Dr. Tony reaches for spinal decompression or SoftWave instead.
Find Out Why That Knot Keeps Coming Back
Dr. Tony will examine you, work out whether the muscle is the problem or the messenger, and tell you honestly which tool your case needs.
Axis Health and Wellness, 6767 S. Spruce St., Suite 110, Centennial, CO 80112. Serving Centennial, Greenwood Village, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Aurora, Parker and Castle Rock since 1997.