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Rhonda Hogan, The Dry Needling Expert
For more than 20 years, Rhonda has been treating people’s trigger points using a method known as trigger point acupuncture. Over the past few years, Physical Therapists have come to understand the benefits of trigger point acupuncture and rebranded the same tools, techniques and procedures as “Dry Needling”.
This treatment uses acupuncture needles and is a more aggressive treatment approach than traditional acupuncture. After a needle is inserted, it is manipulated with the goal of getting the unusually tense muscle to twitch until fatigued. Once the muscle is exhausted, it also releases it’s tension relieving the pain caused in body parts attached to the offending muscle.
Where Dry Needling Excels
Many painful conditions can be addressed with dry needling. Commonly frozen shoulder, TMJ, neck and back pain, tennis elbow, digestive, plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, joint pain, nerve and other problems that are thought to be serious but instead are merely muscles gone awry.
When do patients feel results?
Some patients feel immediate relief from their complaint and leave stunned that they finally found something that has given them at least relief from their long lasting issue. Others take a few treatments for relief. Some people are cured in a few treatments and others need a maintenance treatment every month or two. Some patients get noticeable relief but not a permanent cure.
“One Dry Needling treatment is like 10 massages” – D.K..
Common Reactions
There are a wide variety of reactions to dry needling. Some people just lie there and don’t respond. Others jump when their muscles first jump. Some say they are feeling a sharp pain. Others vocalize along with the twitching. It’s common to hear “that’s it, that’s the spot” from patients once the twitching starts. The rare few are very vocal, sometimes with profanity! Some people feel no pain, others significant (but tolerable) amount. After the treatment, most people have soreness as if they had a hard muscular workout. Almost all immediately feel their tension reduced in the soreness. Most say “it was worth it”. Muscular soreness is the typical response to a treatment. The sensation is similar to a hard muscular workout. Soreness lasts 1-2 days but leaves behind a muscle different than before the treatment.
Common Misunderstandings
Indirect (distal) treatment location is one of the reasons that people misunderstand dry needling. Maybe they have heel pain and the acupuncturist is treating their calf muscles. Perhaps they have elbow pain and the treatment is to the forearm. The treatment is often not directly where the pain is felt, but often performed on a related muscle. The body is an amazing, interconnected system of mechanical, chemical and electrical parts. It is logical that a problem in one part of the body can cause a symptom in another. Wiggle your fingers and watch your forearm. Watch peoples calf while they walk. Another is that needles are inserted into nerves. Needles are inserted into muscles. It’s these muscles that may be negatively impacting a nerve or other body function.
About Rhonda Hogan
A life-long fascination with health and the human body’s functioning led to a career in acupuncture. She previously worked in a Pharmaceutical company’s microbiology lab under extreme aseptic conditions monitoring the purity of water (This makes her super-careful with clinic cleanliness and safety) . She received her Masters of Science in Acupuncture from Tri-State College of Acupuncture in NYC. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from The Pacific College of Health and Science and expects to graduate in April 2021. Her Bachelors in Biology is from Lehigh University.
Rhonda is a licensed acupuncturist and began practicing in 1999. She has been in private practice in Somerset, NJ since 2004. She has treated thousands of people and given over 30,000 treatments. Dry needling is not commonly taught in acupuncture schools. The college she attended taught dry needling methods (trigger point acupuncture). The length of her education was several times as much as Physical Therapists receive in their dry needling certificate program. Moreover, Rhonda has over 20 years of hands-on experience treating using dry needling for a wide variety of problems.
Consequently, patients travel from significantly further distance to get dry needled by Rhonda.
If you are concerned about the intensity of the treatment, Rhonda is happy to work with your level of tolerance.
Watch our videos to see Rhonda dry needling patients to evoke muscular twitching.