If you’re living with osteoarthritis, you know how the constant aching, stiffness, and reduced mobility can affect every aspect of your daily life. Simple tasks like climbing stairs, opening jars, or even getting out of bed become challenging when your joints are inflamed and painful. At our clinic, we’ve seen countless patients find significant relief through dry needling—a targeted treatment approach that addresses the muscular dysfunction surrounding arthritic joints. While osteoarthritis involves degenerative changes to the cartilage and bone, much of the pain and limitation you experience actually comes from the muscles, tendons, and soft tissues working overtime to compensate for joint instability. By treating these dysfunctional muscle patterns, we can help reduce your pain, improve your mobility, and enhance your quality of life without relying solely on medication or invasive procedures.
Understanding Osteoarthritis and Its Impact
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting over 32 million adults in the United States. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune condition, osteoarthritis results from the gradual breakdown of cartilage—the protective cushioning between your bones. As this cartilage deteriorates, bones begin to rub against each other, causing pain, swelling, and reduced range of motion. The condition typically develops slowly over years and most commonly affects the knees, hips, hands, and spine.
What many people don’t realize is that osteoarthritis creates a cascade of muscular problems throughout your body. When a joint becomes painful and unstable, the surrounding muscles react in predictable ways. Some muscles become overactive and chronically tight as they attempt to stabilize the affected joint, while others become inhibited and weak. This imbalance creates additional stress on already compromised joints and can lead to pain that radiates far beyond the site of arthritis itself. You might have knee osteoarthritis but experience hip pain, or have arthritis in your lower back that causes tension headaches. This is where dry needling becomes particularly valuable—by addressing the muscular component of your arthritis pain, we can often provide relief even though we cannot reverse the cartilage damage itself.
What Is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a therapeutic technique that involves inserting thin, solid needles directly into muscle tissue to release tension, reduce pain, and restore normal function. The term “dry” distinguishes it from injections that use medication—these needles don’t inject anything into your body. Instead, they work by creating a precise mechanical and neurological effect within the muscle tissue.
We use dry needling as part of a comprehensive approach to treating musculoskeletal pain. The technique specifically targets trigger points—hyperirritable spots within taut bands of muscle that can cause local tenderness and referred pain patterns. When we insert a needle into these areas, it often produces a brief muscle twitch response, which is actually a positive sign that we’ve reached the dysfunctional tissue. This response helps reset the muscle’s neurological signaling and allows it to relax and function properly again. For patients with osteoarthritis, dry needling addresses the secondary muscular problems that develop around arthritic joints, providing relief from pain and improving overall joint function.
How Dry Needling Works for Osteoarthritis
When you have osteoarthritis, your body naturally tries to protect the affected joint by altering movement patterns and engaging surrounding muscles differently. Over time, this protective mechanism becomes problematic. Muscles that constantly work to stabilize an unstable joint develop trigger points and become chronically shortened and painful. Meanwhile, other muscles that should be supporting the joint become inhibited and weak, creating further imbalance.
Dry needling interrupts this dysfunctional cycle through multiple mechanisms. First, the mechanical insertion of the needle disrupts the trigger point structure, breaking up the contracted muscle fibers and allowing them to lengthen. Second, the needle insertion stimulates local blood flow to the area, bringing oxygen and nutrients while removing metabolic waste products that accumulate in chronically tight muscles. Third, the treatment triggers a localized inflammatory response that actually promotes healing—this might seem counterintuitive when you’re already dealing with inflammation from arthritis, but this controlled, temporary inflammation in the muscle tissue is part of the natural healing process.
Perhaps most importantly, dry needling affects the nervous system’s perception of pain. The technique stimulates sensory receptors that can override pain signals traveling from your arthritic joint to your brain. We often combine dry needling with electrical stimulation to enhance these effects, using small electrical currents through the needles to further modulate pain pathways and promote muscle relaxation. Many patients notice immediate improvements in their range of motion after treatment, along with a significant reduction in pain levels that can last for days or even weeks.
The Science Behind Dry Needling for Joint Pain
Research into dry needling for osteoarthritis has grown substantially over the past decade, and the findings support what we observe in clinical practice. Studies examining patients with knee osteoarthritis have shown that dry needling to surrounding muscles produces measurable improvements in pain scores, physical function, and walking ability. These improvements aren’t just subjective—researchers have documented actual changes in muscle activation patterns and joint biomechanics following treatment.
The physiological mechanisms at work are well-established. When we needle a trigger point, we create microtrauma that triggers the body’s healing response. This increases local circulation and promotes the release of growth factors that support tissue repair. Additionally, dry needling influences neurotransmitter levels in both the local tissue and the central nervous system, affecting substances like substance P (which transmits pain signals) and beta-endorphins (the body’s natural pain relievers).
For patients with hip osteoarthritis, studies have demonstrated that treating the muscles around the hip joint—particularly the gluteal muscles, hip flexors, and external rotators—can significantly reduce pain and improve function. Similar results have been observed in patients with hand osteoarthritis, where treating the forearm muscles that control finger and thumb movement provides relief from pain and stiffness. The key insight from this research is that addressing muscular dysfunction is just as important as addressing the joint pathology itself when managing osteoarthritis symptoms.
Which Joints Benefit Most from Dry Needling?
While dry needling can be beneficial for osteoarthritis in any joint, we see particularly strong results in certain areas. Knee osteoarthritis responds exceptionally well to this treatment approach. The knee is surrounded by multiple muscle groups that become dysfunctional when arthritis develops—the quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and hip muscles all play crucial roles in knee function and can all develop trigger points that contribute to your pain. By treating these muscles systematically, we can often reduce knee pain significantly and improve your ability to walk, climb stairs, and perform daily activities.
Hip osteoarthritis also responds very well to dry needling. The hip joint is deeply embedded within layers of muscle tissue, and pain from hip arthritis often radiates into the buttock, groin, and thigh. Patients frequently develop compensatory patterns that create trigger points in the gluteal muscles, piriformis, tensor fasciae latae, and psoas. Addressing these muscles through dry needling can dramatically reduce pain and restore more normal hip movement patterns.
For those dealing with arthritis in the spine, dry needling to the paraspinal muscles and muscles of the shoulder girdle can provide substantial relief. Lower back osteoarthritis often causes chronic muscle tension and spasm, while neck arthritis frequently leads to tension headaches and shoulder pain. Shoulder osteoarthritis benefits from treatment to the rotator cuff muscles, trapezius, and muscles that stabilize the shoulder blade. Even hand and finger arthritis can be helped by treating the forearm muscles that control fine motor movements, though this requires specialized precision due to the smaller muscle groups involved.
What to Expect During Treatment
Your first visit with us will include a comprehensive assessment to understand your specific arthritis pain patterns and identify which muscles are contributing to your symptoms. We use the EXSTORE system—a proven approach that examines functional muscle testing to pinpoint exactly which muscles are dysfunctional and inhibited. This examination helps us create a targeted treatment plan rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
During the dry needling treatment itself, you’ll be positioned comfortably, and we’ll expose only the area being treated. The needles we use are extremely thin—much finer than needles used for injections or blood draws—so most patients find the insertion sensation quite tolerable. You might feel a brief pinch or pressure when the needle enters the skin, followed by a dull ache or tight sensation when it reaches the trigger point. When we hit an active trigger point, you may experience a quick muscle twitch, which, while surprising, is actually a positive sign that we’ve found and released the problem area.
Treatment sessions typically last 15-30 minutes, depending on how many muscle groups we’re addressing. Afterward, you might feel some soreness in the treated muscles—similar to the feeling after a deep tissue massage or an intense workout. This soreness usually resolves within 24-48 hours. We often recommend gentle movement and stretching after treatment to help maintain the improvements we’ve achieved. Most patients require a series of treatments for optimal results, though many notice some improvement after just the first session.
Combining Dry Needling with Other Therapies
Dry needling works best as part of a comprehensive treatment approach rather than as a standalone therapy. At our clinic, we typically combine dry needling with other evidence-based treatments to maximize your results. Orthopedic acupuncture, which targets not just muscles but also the joints and soft tissues surrounding your arthritic areas, can enhance the benefits of dry needling by addressing the broader biomechanical issues contributing to your pain.
We also frequently incorporate corrective exercise programming into your treatment plan. Once we’ve used dry needling to release overactive muscles and reduce pain, corrective exercises help activate the inhibited muscles and retrain proper movement patterns. This combination is crucial for long-term success—without addressing the underlying movement dysfunction, the problematic muscle patterns tend to return. Soft tissue mobilization techniques, including instrument-assisted approaches, can further break down scar tissue and fascial restrictions that limit your joint mobility.
For some patients, we’ll recommend combining dry needling with electrostimulation to enhance pain relief and muscle activation. The electrical current helps modulate pain signals more effectively and can strengthen the therapeutic effects of the needling itself. This multi-modal approach allows us to customize your treatment based on your specific needs, symptoms, and goals. Whether you’re an athlete trying to maintain performance despite arthritis or simply someone who wants to reduce pain and improve daily function, combining these therapies gives you the best chance of achieving lasting relief.
Start Your Journey Toward Better Joint Function
If osteoarthritis has been limiting your activities and affecting your quality of life, dry needling may provide the relief you’ve been seeking. At Lycoming Orthopedic & Sports Acupuncture, we specialize in treating musculoskeletal conditions with evidence-based approaches that address both symptoms and underlying dysfunction. Our dry needling services, combined with orthopedic acupuncture and personalized corrective exercise programs, offer comprehensive care for arthritis pain. Ready to take the first step? Contact us today to schedule your initial consultation and discover how we can help you move better and live with less pain.
