As a long time member of professional acupuncture community and the president of American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, I wish to register my opposition to the practice of dry needling by physical therapists.
First, I believe it will ultimately have a detrimental effect on public health and safety. Second, it contributes to a fundamental misunderstanding of acupuncture on the part of the general public. Physical therapists insert acupuncture needles into painful spots on a patient’s body -- period. Professional acupuncturists learn hundreds of recognized acupuncture points and their underlining body structures; they are thoroughly trained in clean needling technique and blood-borne pathogens; and they complete a lengthy internship, performing acupuncture treatment under close supervision.
There is simply no comparison between the fifty hours of training a physical therapist receives in needle insertion and the thousands of hours required to truly internalize and manifest the theory and practice of acupuncture. Putting dry needling by physical therapists on the same footing with the health care services performed by licensed acupuncturists will only serve to confuse the public about the real nature and therapeutic effects of acupuncture.
Some people see this as a turf war between acupuncturists and physical therapists. I have nothing against physical therapists. And it is in fact a tribute to the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy that they are trying to appropriate it. My objection is that they are appropriating acupuncture at a very superficial level: it both undercuts and trivializes the power and total therapeutic value of a comprehensive, complex medical system.