02/02/2026
There are many clinicians who perform dry needling but not all of these people will perform dry needling with electrical stimulation (e-stim)! Dry needling WITH e-stim can be such a powerful tool in treating someone’s pain…and here’s why! 🙌🏻
When dry needling without e-stim, the clinician will typically piston the needle (partially withdraw the inserted needle and reinsert it repeatedly) to try to elicit a muscle twitch response (a small muscle contraction)…this can cause extra tissue trauma and can contribute to post-treatment soreness.
WITH e-stim, needles are inserted and then attached to an electrical stimulation unit that then causes the muscle to twitch without having to piston the needle. Because the needles aren’t pistoned, less tissue trauma occurs and people have less post-treatment soreness! 👏🏻
The use of electrical stimulation with dry needling also helps retrain dysfunctional muscles to fire properly, helps reduce pain, and helps decrease muscle tone! 🎉
If you have tried dry needling without e-stim before and just didn’t get the results that you had hoped for, maybe it’s time to try dry needling WITH e-stim to see if it is a productive treatment technique for you!
