Here's How To Treat A Pinched Nerve

What Is A Pinched Nerve?

You've probably heard of a pinched nerve, but what is it exactly? A pinched nerve occurs when excessive pressure is put on a nerve. The pressure can be caused by surrounding tissues, such as bones, cartilage, muscles, or tendons. Excessive pressure on a nerve disrupts its function, causing pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness.

A pinched nerve can feel less like a pinch and more like a sharp, intense pain that disrupts your daily life or even prevents you from sleeping. It can happen in many different areas of the body including the neck where it can create tension and headaches, the wrist where it can create carpal tunnel syndrome, or the spine where a herniated disc can refer pain down the leg.

The symptoms of a pinched nerve can include…

• Numbness
• Pins and needles or tingling
• Sharp pain
• Aching pain
• Muscle weakness in the affected area
• Shooting pain that radiates down a limb
• Loss of coordination in the hands and feet
• And perhaps most confusing, pain in the area of the nerve or pain in a completely different area of your body

How To Treat A Pinched Nerve

If your pinched nerve pain isn't going away or you're just sick of dealing with it, we can help! We see great results treating pinched nerves with dry needling. We are trained in specific ways to dry needle safely even over the rib cage which is an area many physicians avoid.

In order to treat a pinched nerve, we need to target trigger points. A trigger point is an area of constriction or tension in muscle fibers that can disrupt function, restrict mobility or range of motion, and cause intense pain and tenderness. Dry needling is used to treat pinched nerves by targeting the tense trigger points in a particular muscle so that they loosen, allow blood flow to increase, and relieve pain.

We know that a treatment like dry needling may sound scary and painful but dry needling causes minimal discomfort if any at all. Dry needling uses very thin dry needles that puncture the skin and slide through the tissue. The needles provide a constant mechanical stimulus to the trigger points while they're in place, which is usually about 8-10 minutes. 

The mechanical stimulus provided is similar to what your muscles would get from a massage but because the needle doesn't need to release pressure like a hand does when massaging a muscle, the pressure remains constant and is able to provide relief in a very short period of time. We like to say that dry needling is equivalent to a 60 minute deep tissue neck massage in just 10 minutes. This is why dry needling is such an effective way to treat a pinched nerve and relieve pain.

We treated Natalie's pinched nerve by dry needling the subscapularis, trapezius, and cervical spine. One reason why dry needling is such an effective way to treat a pinched nerve is the ability to pinpoint treatment in these locations. When it comes to treating a pinched nerve, it usually isn't just one muscle that's causing issues. That's why we dry needled Natalie in different areas.

Dry needling is an excellent way to treat a pinched nerve but it's also great for headaches & migraines, tendinitis, disc problems, arthritis pain, and even plantar fasciitis. Dry needling is also an effective way to improve blood flow and oxygenation to damaged tissue. Dry needling provides a natural way to relieve pain using anti-inflammatory mediators that already exist in the body to decrease the sensation of pain instead of using pain medication.

If you're suffering from pain related to a pinched nerve, click here or call (410) 296-7700 to schedule your consultation. We'll explain how we can get you out of pain, how we can treat your pinched nerve, and help you feel better faster.