Dry needling falls within the scope of practice for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine practitioners. Although each state has their own state Acupuncture board and regulations concerning the practice of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, each state includes the use of acupuncture (needles) for the use of creating energetic shifts in a person as within the scope of Oriental Medicine. Therefore, dry needling falls within the scope of practice of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine practitioners. As it falls under the scope of practice for an established profession, it would be illegal for those of another profession to practice dry needling. This would be like Oriental Medicine practitioners giving Western dietary or supplement recommendations. We are not allowed to because it does not fall under our scope of practice; it falls under another profession's scope of practice. How did I come to this conclusion? Let's break it down. Dry needling is but another name for acupuncture (when used as a verb). When doing acupuncture, filiform needles are used to puncture the skin of patients in order to create energetic shifts in the patient's body, mind and spirit. As the needles are filiform, they are solid; because of this, they do not carry or transfer liquids or fluids such as those used by Western medical pracitioners (such as in the delivery of a vaccine or the flu shot). Hence, we use "dry needles" when we perform acupuncture or engage in dry needling. So when you think about the tools we use in acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, it is that of "dry needles." Perhaps we should look to the orignal, Chinese name for acupuncture and see if "acupuncture" is not a poor translation? Also, if we are to look at the purposes of needling we can say that we sometimes use our tools to, in terms of Oriental medicine, break up stagnation or stasis and to create movement - just as a physical therapist or Western medical doctor might claim to use needles to break up muscle spasms in order to release pain. Our tradition has been doing what physical therapists, Western medical doctors and other non-Oriental medicine practitioners are claiming is theirs for thousands of years. Look at a professional using "dry needling" on someone's back to break up muscle tightness or a spasm and then have an acupuncturist sitting right next to them, using "acupuncture" to essentially create the same result. Do you think that they are really two different things? Also, perhaps we should mention the training that is required of acupuncturists and Oriental Medicine practitioners versus professionals who engage in dry needling. We spend years in school and in clinic, learning all of the ways in which we can engage with the needle and the person. We are safe, experienced and well-educated becase of our education and training (that is regulated by a professional and legal board). "Dry needling" as practiced outside of the scope of Oriental Medicine is not dictated by the same professional and legal regulations. One must wonder why, with the increased interest in wholistic health and alternative medicine, that "dry needling" is only now being practiced by those outside the field of Oriental Medicine - something that we have been doing all along. What I just wrote contains many different points for why dry needling is essentially acupuncture, and therefore belongs under the scope of practice for (and only for) practitioners of acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. The points can each be easily expanded upon, but this hopefully is a good starting point for thinking about why acupuncture and dry needling are essentially one and the same.