Acupuncture is one of many techniques used within Physiotherapy for the management of pain, soft tissue injuries and as a means of enhancing the body’s own healing chemicals to aid recovery and enhance rehabilitation.
It is believed that acupuncture enhances pain modulation via stimulation of the brain and spinal cord to produce natural pain relieving chemicals, such as endorphins, melatonin to promote sleep and serotonin to promote wellbeing.
These chemicals assist the body’s healing process, and can be used as a precursor to other physiotherapy techniques.
When do we use Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is mostly known for pain relief. This is one of our treatment modalities which can be very useful to treat muscle and joint pain such as back and neck pain, pelvic pain, pregnancy related back and pelvic girdle pain, tension headaches, knee pain, shoulder pain, fibromyalgia and chronic pain conditions.
What to expect ?
- Acupuncture involves the use of single use, pre-sterilised, disposable needles of varying sizes that pierce the skin at specific acupuncture points.
- A number of needles may be used at each treatment and these are typically left in position for about 20-30 minutes before being removed.
- Acupuncture is not a pain free modality; the needle sites can produce an aching sensation and this is called ‘De qi’.
- The acupuncture points used will be determined by the therapist, after a thorough examination of the patient. Clinicians may use traditional acupuncture points only, trigger points or a combination of both.
- Patients will generally require about 3 sessions before the therapist can be certain of an effect, though some people may show immediate effects after a treatment.
- The effect of acupuncture is cumulative and pain relief builds up as the treatment progresses.
How safe is acupuncture?
Very safe in comparison to other modalities used in medicine.
The clinic uses sterile, single use needles only so there is no risk of infection and clinicians are highly trained to follow the strictest hygiene standards.
Serious side effects are very rare; less than 1 in 10,000 treatments.
Your physiotherapist will run through a detailed history and examination to assess your suitability to acupuncture. You also need to alert the physiotherapist to any medical conditions you may suffer from such as diabetes, heart problems and low blood pressure.`