The Effect of Dry Needling and Toe Towel Curl Exercises on Pain in Patients with Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain that can develop into a chronic condition and impair functional activities and quality of life. The main risk factors include age 40–60 years, female gender, obesity, and prolonged standing/walking activities. Conventional conservative approaches often provide suboptimal results, necessitating more specific interventions. The combination of dry needling (for pain modulation and trigger point release) and toe towel curl exercise (for strengthening intrinsic foot muscles) has the potential to provide a synergistic effect. This research aimed to analyze the effect of the combination of these two interventions on pain intensity in patients with plantar fasciitis. A quantitative study with one-group pre-test–post-test design was conducted at Medan Injury-Free Clinic during July–August 2026. A total of 15 plantar fasciitis patients were selected using purposive sampling technique based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Combined intervention of dry needling on related muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus, and plantar muscles) and toe towel curl exercise were administered twice weekly for four weeks (total of eight sessions). Pain intensity was measured using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) before the first intervention (pre-test) and after completing all sessions (post-test). Data analysis included the Shapiro-Wilk normality test and Paired Sample t-test with significance level of α = 0.05. The majority of respondents were aged 41–50 years (86.7%) and were female (73.3%). Mean VAS score decreased significantly from 6.07 ± 1.163 (moderate-severe category) to 3.93 ± 1.163 (mild-moderate category), with a mean decrease of 2.133 points (35.3%).