Dry Needling

Maybe a doctor, trainer, or friend told you that “dry needling” could help your sore muscles, sports injury, or back pain. You may be wondering what it is — and whether it’s the same as acupuncture. Here’s the simple answer: yes, it basically is. Both use the same thin needles to calm down tight, painful muscles. The bigger question is who is doing it.

At Attunement Wellness in Portland, your treatment is done by Dr. Dani Brunner, a licensed acupuncturist with more than 3,500 hours of training and over ten years of experience helping thousands of people feel better.

Here’s the short version.

  • Dry needling and acupuncture use the same tiny needles to ease muscle pain — they are really the same thing.
  • What matters most is how much training the person holding the needle has had.
  • Dr. Dani is a licensed acupuncturist with 3,500+ hours of training and over a decade of experience.

What Is Dry Needling?

When a muscle is overused or hurt, it can form a tight “knot” — a hard, tender spot that aches and limits how you move. Dry needling treats those knots.A trained practitioner gently places a very thin needle (about the width of a hair) into the knot. This helps the muscle relax, brings fresh blood to the area, and eases the pain. The needles are sterile and used once, then thrown away.The word “dry” just means nothing is injected through the needle — no medicine, no fluid. The needle itself does the work. People often use it for tight muscles, stiff joints, sports injuries, and aches from sitting at a desk all day.

Is Dry Needling the Same as Acupuncture?

In plain terms — yes. Dry needling and acupuncture use the exact same needles and work in the same way. Acupuncturists have actually been needling sore, tender muscle spots for hundreds of years. “Dry needling” is just a newer name for part of what acupuncture has always done. Experts who have studied both closely agree they are really the same treatment.[1]

So what’s different? Mainly the training behind the needle.

An acupuncturist learns to treat the whole body and figure out why a muscle keeps tightening up — not just poke the knot and hope it stays gone. That deeper training is what helps you get lasting results, and what keeps you safe.

Does It Actually Work? Here’s the Proof

This isn’t guesswork. Acupuncture is one of the most studied natural treatments there is.

In a major study published in a respected medical journal (JAMA Internal Medicine), researchers combined the results of 29 high-quality studies — almost 18,000 patients in total. They found acupuncture clearly helped people with ongoing back and neck pain, sore joints (arthritis), headaches, and shoulder pain. It worked better than no treatment, and better than fake (“pretend”) needling.

A follow-up study a few years later, in The Journal of Pain, looked at even more patients and found the relief lasts: people were still feeling better a full year after their treatments ended.

And for the muscle knots that dry needling targets, another review of many studies found that needling those spots really does reduce pain. Bottom line: the science behind dry needling is the science behind acupuncture.

Why Who You Choose Really Matters

Here’s something most people don’t realize. A needle near your ribs, neck, or spine is very close to a lung, a nerve, or a blood vessel. In skilled hands, that’s perfectly safe. But the amount of training people have can be wildly different:

A licensed acupuncturist trains for about four years — more than 3,000 hours — including thousands of hours of supervised, hands-on practice and detailed study of where every needle can safely go.

Some other providers can start dry needling after as little as a weekend course — sometimes just 50 to 100 hours, with little hands-on supervision.

Most of the time, needling causes nothing worse than a little soreness or a small bruise. Serious problems are rare — and they’re far less likely when the person treating you has spent years learning exactly what they’re doing.

 

Meet Dr. Dani

Dr. Dani Brunner has more than 3,500 hours of training and has treated thousands of people over more than ten years. Here’s a quick look at her background:

  • Four years of full-time training before ever treating a patient (Oregon College of Oriental Medicine)
  • Master’s degree in acupuncture (2012)
  • Doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine (2021)
  • Special certification in sports-injury treatment (2025)
  • Trains with top sports acupuncturists, including the team acupuncturist for the San Francisco 49ers
  • Official acupuncturist for the Portland Winterhawks Rosebud Dance Team
Meet Your Practitioner

A Simple Tip Before You Book Anywhere

Anyone can buy needles. Not everyone has spent years learning how to use them well. Before you let someone needle you — here or anywhere else — it’s fair to ask one simple question: “How many hours of needle training have you had?” With a licensed acupuncturist, you get more than a quick fix for a sore spot. You get someone who looks at your whole body, finds the real cause of the pain, and helps it stay away. That’s the difference you’ll feel at Attunement Wellness.

Your most common questions, answered

Does it hurt?

Most people feel just a tiny pinch, then a deep ache as the knot lets go — followed by relief. The needles are about as thin as a hair.

Yes, especially with a well-trained acupuncturist. The most you’ll usually feel afterward is mild soreness or a small bruise that fades quickly.

Basically, yes. It uses the same needles to treat muscle knots, which is part of what acupuncture has always done. The main difference is how much training the practitioner has.

Back pain, neck and shoulder pain, tennis or golfer’s elbow, sciatica, heel pain (plantar fasciitis), hip pain, sports injuries, recovery after surgery, and more.

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Sources

Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2012;172(19):1444-1453. PubMed PMID: 22965186.

Vickers AJ, Vertosick EA, Lewith G, et al. Acupuncture for chronic pain: update of an individual patient data meta-analysis. The Journal of Pain. 2018;19(5):455-474.

Tough EA, White AR, Cummings TM, et al. Acupuncture and dry needling in the management of myofascial trigger point pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Pain. 2009;13(1):3-10. PubMed PMID: 18395479.

Barber J, Lodo F, Nugent-Head A, Zeng X. Comparative techniques of acupuncture and dry needling. Medical Acupuncture. 2023;35(5):221-229. PMC10606949.

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