A small needle sweeping back and forth under your skin can provide you almost immediate effect without experiencing pain when the needle piercing the acupuncture points and meridian or bitterness of herbal medicine. At Shanghai Medicine Clinic in Dubai, we have many cases of using floating acupuncture to treat pain. There are about two to six courses of treatment. The speed of treatment and relief of chronic pain decreases in a jagged manner. Usually, the pain relief is the most significant after the first treatment.

Patient A injured his knee due to a car accident. He underwent three surgeries within half a year, leaving behind scar tissue sequelae, making it difficult to squat and sit. He received floating acupuncture treatment. After the first floating acupuncture treatment, half of the pain was eliminated. After the second floating acupuncture treatment, the knee pain was eliminated, and I did not return to the clinic for treatment. Please refer to the articles about the ” Efficacy and Safety of Floating Needle Therapy in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthrities“. 

Patient B suffered from pain in the right shoulder joint, which had recurred for more than 10 years and aggravated year by year. Her activities were obviously limited, and she could not dress, lift her trousers, or comb her hair. She tried floating acupuncture therapy, which gradually relieved the inflammation around the shoulder.

Patient C inadvertently strained his waist muscles when he turned around while playing golf. As long as he turned around, his waist pain occurred. After the first treatment, I felt that the tightness of the quadratus lumborum muscle was significantly relaxed. After five courses of treatment, the low back pain was completely eliminated.

Floating acupuncture therapy is a modified form of acupuncture – treating soft tissue pain caused by fascia inflammation

Many people may not familiar with “The floating acupuncture”. Fu’s Subcutaneous Needling (FSN), also called Floating Acupuncture (FA) is a modified acupuncture technique originated from traditional acupuncture. Although it is a form of acupuncture, its technique and needle used in floating acupuncture differ significantly from traditional acupuncture. The ‘floating needle’, instead of traditional method of vertically inserting the needles, only penetrate to subcutaneous layer and the needle is inserted obliquely, which looks like floating on the surface of skin, hence it is called floating acupuncture therapy.

In simple terms, the floating acupuncture therapy mainly focus on the stimulation of muscle tissue, that is to “massage” the muscles. The pain on affected muscles are caused by ischemia and hypoxia, which is what Chinese medicine calls “pain is caused by congestion”. The floating acupuncture have directly impact on the muscle which can relieve it tension and spasm. Once Qi and blood flows, the pain will naturally disappear.

Floating acupuncture therapy is mainly used to treat musculoskeletal disorders and some chronic benign visceral disorders which are caused by meridian discomfort and blood stagnation, including chronic headache, cervical spondylosis, tenosynovitis, lumbar disc herniation, knee arthritis, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, chronic stomach pain, urinary tract stones, chronic cervicitis and dysmenorrhea.

It can also treat soft tissue injuries in four limbs, such as muscle soreness, muscle strains, and sprains. Floating acupuncture therapy is a non-pharmacological therapy. Compared with traditional acupuncture therapy, it has the advantages of short-course session, quick effect, minimal trauma and less pain and sensation on the patient. Common diseases can be cured on the spot, and obvious curative effect can be achieved after 3-5 treatments.

The difference between traditional acupuncture and floating acupuncture

As a well-known Chinese medicine treatment, traditional acupuncture involves by inserting needle to penetrating skin, subcutaneous and muscular tissues and then stimulating the point, so as to promote blood circulation and relieve pain. While the “floating acupuncture”(FSN needle) can mainly treat chronic pain caused by fascia tension and inflammation. Floating acupuncture, invented by Dr. Zhonghua Fu in1996 is an innovation for the treatment of myofascial pain and trigger points based on the research and clinical findings of Dr. D. Simons and Dr. Janet G. Travell.

• Different manipulation

The highlight for floating acupuncture lies in its revolutionary needle technique. In traditional acupuncture, the straight insertion technique is to insert into skin surface vertically at 90 degrees through a ultra-tiny needle(0.3 mm), penetrating into the acupuncture points, so as to stimulate the points through the technique of lifting insertion and twisting.

Instead of traditional one, the floating acupuncture is to penetrate into the skin less than 30 degrees through the special technique of sweeping. As the needle is inserted into the subcutaneous tissue, it can affect and stimulate the surrounding myofascia trigger point, accelerate the blood circulation of the affected muscle, so as to relieve chronic pain.

• Different needling acupoints

Instead of focusing on traditional acupoints, the floating acupuncture targets on the tightened muscles near the wound which become tight, stiff, rigid and slippery. It is quite difference with the traditional one in terms of technique and acupoints, why is it effective in relieving pain?

All organs and muscle tissues in the whole body have corresponding fascia, of which any muscle inflammation and ischemia may cause pains, such as shoulder and neck pain, elbow and wrist joint pain, low back pain, knee and ankle joint pain, chronic headache, Stomach pain, menstrual pain, etc. When the pain is caused by muscle inflammation or contracture, an obvious tight bandage around the painful area is formed. Through sweeping movement of floating needle acupuncture, the “Tightened Muscle TM” can be relieved almost instantly.

Floating acupuncture stimulates subcutaneous loose connective tissue, releases the tighten myofascia to relieve pain

When applying floating acupuncture, patient don’t feel pain or discomfort. The treatment theory that it can relieve pain quickly is associated with the evolutionary development of medical research that believe that muscles can become soreness and sickness that was regarded as the bone problem in the pass. In Western medicine, rehabilitation and physical therapy are to relieve pain and muscle stiffness with hot compresses, electrotherapy, massage, and dry acupuncture. The theory of the three-dimensional fascia on the layer of the muscle affecting muscle activity have received so much attention over the past 20 year.

The floating acupuncture is a therapy that stimulates the loose connective tissue layer under the skin, which can relieve the tight and contracted myofascia and decrease muscle tension, improve blood circulation and restore proper function.

The manipulation of floating acupuncture is to sweep the loose connective tissue layer under the skin, combined with reperfusion exercises at local area. The doctor will ask the patient to do exercise carry out activities and give countermeasures to speed up the recovery. Once the blood circulation within muscles is improved, the tension and pain in the tightened muscles can be relieved immediately.

Floating acupuncture can relieve chronic pains such as shoulder and neck pain, elbow and wrist joint pain, lower back pain, knee and ankle joint pain caused by fascia inflammation. It focus on applying needle on the tight and stiff muscles around the pain area rather than the pain, and injecting in subcutaneous tissue beneath the skin. In other word, the chief complaint of pain may not be the real cause of the pain , but the tightened muscles that cause pain or symptoms. It is just like in detective novels, the place where the murder is discovered is the second scene, and the place where the murder is committed is the first scene elsewhere. During the process, acupuncturist have to think and deliberate over and over again, and figure out the source of the symptoms.

Take the treatment of tennis elbow as an example,  the doctor will use palpation and ask the patient to use the surrounding muscles to make a pain-inducing posture, such as making a fist at the wrist, to evaluate the affected muscles. With floating acupuncture treatment, when the affected muscles at the first site are relaxed, the pain at the second site will disappear.

As the needle is used to sweep the subcutaneous tissue, it won’t harm muscles, nerves, important blood vessels and internal organs. The patient has almost no pain, only a little physical tension. The whole section is about 5 to 10 minutes. After treatment, the tighten muscle and the pain can be relieved greatly.

The characteristic of floating acupuncture therapy is that the pain will be relieved immediately after treatment. If the treatment is continued, the pain level can decrease significantly, so it can relieve chronic pain quickly and significantly.

Understanding floating acupuncture therapy in 3 minutes

Q1. How many sessions of floating acupuncture do you need? When you want to say goodbye to chronic pain caused by fascia. 

A: It depends on the type of disease. Pain can be relieved after 3 time treatments. For patients with severe pain, they have to take 6 or more before getting relieve.  

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Q2. Can floating acupuncture be done after cupping and scraping?

A: Floating needling therapy may not be suitable to do after cupping and scraping. It may appear a small bleeding marks or cupping marks on the subcutaneous fascia layer temporarily. The effect of floating needling therapy become worse when performing floating needle. It is suggested to do after the marks disappear.

Q3. Is it suitable for people with needle fear?

A: Floating needle acupuncture is painless, and you won’t feel any discomfort after treatment. It is very suitable for people who are intolerant to pain or have fainting. During the process of floating needles, it may stimulate the surrounding tissues when sweeping the local part. Some sensitive patients will feel slight inflammation and pain, but it will disappear the next day.

Q4. Can electrotherapy, hyperthermia and massage be used after floating acupuncture therapy?

A: Before the floating acupuncture treatment, many patients have done the treatment of electrotherapy, hyperthermia, laser, manual therapy, or massage, exercise therapy, and oral herbal medicine. The floating acupuncture therapy can be done at the same time, which can speed up the repair of the wound through multiple treatments. ​

Q5. For people taking anticoagulants or having diabetic with wounds, is it suitable for floating acupuncture treatment?

A: Usually, for patients with three highs( Hypertension, High blood cholesterol, High blood sugar)and cardiovascular diseases who take anticoagulants, it won’t affect the blood vessels as it just sweep in the subcutaneous tissue. It can be used for patients with pain caused by fascia. For diabetic patients with wounds, it can help dredge tendons, relax the fascia around the wound, improve the exchange of Qi and blood, which contribute to the wound healing.