How Do Trigger Point Injections Work? What You Should Know

Trigger point injections can help treat some forms of chronic muscle pain. After your injections, you may experience some mild tenderness or soreness, but you can go back to your normal activities right away.

A trigger point injection is a procedure that releases tight areas of muscle under the skin, known as trigger points. This quick procedure is typically performed in a doctor’s office.

After getting trigger point injections, you can return to your usual activities immediately. There may be some tenderness at the injection site after your visit, but most healthcare professionals administer an anesthetic during the injection. The numb, tingly feeling of the anesthetic can last for several hours.

Trigger point injections are safe and effective. They can offer longer-term pain relief for some people, lasting several weeks or months.

This article will tell you what to expect during and after trigger point injections.

With trigger point injections, a healthcare professional uses a needle to insert a small amount of medication into a specific spot in a muscle. A trigger point is an area of muscle that causes referred pain. It may twitch, and you may feel a knot or tightness under the skin.

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A trigger point is not the same as a tender spot. Trigger point injections are typically reserved for areas that are not only tight but also cause referred pain. Referred pain is when one spot on your body causes pain in another spot, such as down a limb.

Trigger point injections are also called wet needling. They often involve injecting an anesthetic such as lidocaine to numb the area or a corticosteroid to help with pain relief.

Dry needling is a similar technique that involves an injection into the trigger points. However, dry needling does not use medication.

Trigger point injections can help with pain from many conditions that involve trigger points. These include:

• tension headache
• tinnitus
• myofascial pain syndrome
• chronic muscle pain
• decreased range of motion in your limbs
• low back pain
• joint pain