Is dry needling painful?

Most people do not feel the insertion of the needle. The local twitch response elicits a very brief cramping and/or deep aching sensation. dry needling may reproduce symptoms directly in the muscle being treated or may refer to other areas of the body. This is a form of referred pain, which is one of the hallmarks of trigger points. Elicitation of local twitch responses and recognizable referred pain is a good and desirable reaction because it confirms a possible source of dysfunction.