FAQ

Do you take my insurance?

I do not bill your insurance company directly. I am an out-of-network provider and accept payment at the time of service. In many cases, my clients can get reimbursed between 50-80% of the cost of the visit depending on your plan and out-of-network benefits.

Why would I come to Savvy PT and pay out of pocket if I have insurance?

This allows us to make the decisions about your well-being. Not someone sitting in an office at your insurance company.

Insurance companies can get in the way of your recovery by limiting the number of appointments available or by not approving any visits at all.  They also determine how much to reimburse your Physical Therapist, which then determines how long your appointment will be, and if you’re being treated by an assistant or aide. 

When considering to go to an out-of-network clinic or to use your insurance, you should consider how much your co-pay and deductible amounts are that you would need to pay at a traditional PT clinic through your insurance and at the doctor’s office to get your referral. Also, consider the quality of the appointment, like the length of time you have and who will be providing your treatment.

Another benefit is that we can begin your treatment right away, without a doctor’s visit (and co-pay) to get a referral.

Check to see if you have out-of-network benefits for Physical Therapy. Most people do, and I will give you an invoice and treatment notes that you can submit for reimbursement. 

Most often, this treatment model will save you both time and money.

How does Dry Needling feel?

Most people are concerned with how the procedure feels, especially if you have some anxiety around needles. Because the needles are so thin, you usually don’t usually feel the poke of the needle itself, but you feel the muscle reacting to the needle. It is a dull, achy, cramping type of sensation which lasts only a few moments. I often use electrical stimulation through the needle to get more of the therapeutic effect of the procedure, which feels like a gentle pulsing of the muscle.

Within minutes after the procedure we will see the positive effects of less pain, increased movement, and increased strength.  You are free to do any activity you want to after a needling session, an it is encouraged. You will feel some muscle soreness for about a day.

There is rarely bleeding with dry needling because the needles are so thin and because they are solid, they don’t remove a piece of skin the way hypodermic needles do, like after a blood draw or flu shot.

I was trained through KinetaCore’s “Functional Dry Needling” program. I completed the required 54 hours of on site training and have performed hundreds of treatment sessions since 2017 and I have not had any serious adverse events from my treatments.

What’s the difference between Dry Needling and Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is described as “Traditional Chinese medicine explains that health is the result of a harmonious balance of the complementary extremes of "yin" and "yang" of the life force known as "qi," pronounced "chi." Illness is said to be the consequence of an imbalance of the forces. Qi is said to flow through meridians, or pathways, in the human body. These meridians and energy flows are accessible through 350 acupuncture points in the body.” - www.medicalnewstoday.com

With dry needling, we aren’t concerned with acupoints or meridians. We we insert the needle directly into a trigger point (knot) in a dysfunctional muscle. The needle effect helps release the trigger point, untangling the muscle fibers, which helps with reducing pain, improving muscle length, and improving muscle strength by allowing the muscle fibers to contract and lengthen normally.

Why is it called Dry Needling?

“Dry” means we aren’t injecting anything into the body, just the solid needle by itself. A wet needle refers to fluid being injected into the tissue, like flu shots.

Why do I hurt if I haven’t had an injury?

Many people with recurring pain have an underlying issue of dysfunctional postural muscles that are supposed to provide stability and postural control. When these muscles aren’t working correctly, your superficial muscles, which are used for moving your body, will spasm and tighten up to attempt to create the stability that is missing.

Even if you are an active and functionally strong person, these deeper layer muscles could be either weak, delayed, or inhibited from pain, poor posture, or lack of development. Even injuries from years ago can have lasting effects on the function of these muscles.

Common complaints include tight muscles with activity, generalized stiffness and limited flexibility, pain with a prolonged position like sitting at your desk or standing and walking. 

Corrective exercises are used to isolate these muscles which will improve your postural stability, reduce superficial muscle tone, get rid of the compensation pattern you’ve developed, and will help with reducing pain.

Can I still do my favorite activity / exercise / sport?

Yes. Movement is the medicine. I will never tell you to stop doing what you love. However, while you are healing we will probably need to modify your activity until you can progress and start to tolerate going at 100% again.

No pain, No gain. Right?

No. Exercise should never hurt! “No Pain No Gain” is referring to the effort of exercise, not actual pain. Muscle fatigue, breathing hard, and exhaustion are “pain” that are normal with exercise. But pain that is limiting you from performing is not normal. Trying to push through pain is detrimental to your progress and will often cause your condition to become worse.

They found something on my MRI / X Ray. Am I broken? Do I need surgery?

Pain is not always found in the images.

Anatomical damage found on your imaging study does not equal your pain. If you’ve found a herniated disc, arthritis, or anything else on your imaging, it does not mean you are broken and that you can’t get better without surgery or injections. There are multiple causes for pain, many of which are treatable with physical therapy.

Always try conservative measures like physical therapy before committing to surgery.

They didn’t find anything on my MRI / X Ray. I’m in pain even though they said nothing is wrong. Can you help?

Imaging studies are good for finding anything that looks abnormal with the anatomy like fractures, ruptures, tears, or herniations. But they don’t show the whole picture of pain.

There is a whole cascade of events that occur with injuries and pain, and physical therapy can help.

A few examples…

A common source of pain that won’t show up on imaging is called myogenic pain, meaning pain originating from the muscle. This is usually hard to describe, it is vague, achy, and hard to pinpoint where it hurts. Muscles can refer pain all around the body, causing pain in an area where there is nothing wrong. Commonly, I see leg pain that is confused with “sciatica” which is actually gluteus muscle dysfunction, or headaches that are caused by pain referred by the upper trapezius.

Another common cause for chronic pain is called Central Sensitivity. After an injury, your body will heal, but pain can linger for months or years. This is because the nervous system actually, physically changes and becomes more sensitive. These changes lead to non painful stimuli to cause pain signals.

How often will I need to come in for appointments?

This depends on a lot of factors and is impossible to say until we meet. However, I can tell you that I typically see people an average of 6-10 visits (lower than the national average for physical therapists). The first few visits are focused on pain and other symptom relief and the following visits are focused on progressing your exercise as a way to prevent recurrence of your problem. I typically see people once per week, which allows time for you to go through your exercises, to recover from the manual therapy, and to return to your activity to assess our progress.

My goal is to get you out of my office and back to your favorite activities. I want to teach you to take care of yourself and not become dependent on me.