Acupuncture, like Western Medicine is a complex subject. It cannot be mastered in a weekend crash course.  In most states in U.S., a non-physician must have at least 3,000 hours of clinical and didactic education and training of Acupunture before they can become certified to treat patients.

Dry needling, as a contemporary style of acupuncture, involves the use of solid filiform needles (contrasted with the use of hollow hypodermic needles that are used for injections) to treat muscle pain by stimulating and breaking muscular knots and bands.  The current controversy regarding the definition of dry needling is that most sensible health professionals consider dry needling as Western Style Acupuncture or Trigger Point Acupuncture whereby the insertion sites are determined by tender painful areas and tight muscles. These sites may be treated alone or in combination with known acupuncture points. However, most physical therapists take the other position that dry needling is different from acupuncture in that it dry neeedling does not use meridians or other "ancient" Eastern medicine paradigms to determine the insertion sites. Regardless of the theory, it is incontrovertible that dry needling involves the same needles pierceing through the skin, as determined by NIH and WHo, which is called acupuncture. It is also critical to understand that dry needling, in the hands of minimally educated practitioners can cause extreme harm. Any invasive procedure has associated and potentially serious medical risks and is safe only if performed by a properly educated, trained and experienced health professional. The technique of dry needling frequently involves needling of muscular structures that may be deep and/or hidden under layers of other muscles and tissues and close to sensitive structures and organs including blood vessels, nerves and organs as, for example, the lungs. The patient can develop painful bruises after the procedure and adverse sequelae may include hematoma, pneumothorax, nerve injury, vascular injury and infection. Angle the needle incorrectly and, for example, the lung may be punctured. Post procedure analgesic medications may be necessary (usually over the counter medications are sufficient). In the worse case scenario, vital organs can be pierced, resulting in complex medical situations or even death.

Physical therapy is not a field that has historically included the use of needles. The recent trend of some physical therapists to embrace dry needling under the umbrella of physical therapy practice is one that marks a distinct departure from traditional physical therapy practice. The fact that many physical therapists receive only minimal hours of training speaks to the potential danger of their practice.

To include dry needling into the scope of practice by physical therapists is unnecessarily to expose the public to serious and potentially hazardous risks, even with ample Western medical training, PTs need the didactic hours that an acupuncturists need and need to be a licensed acupuncture before using dry needling. It is my opinon that dry needling, if needed, should ONLY be performed only by qualified acupuncture practitioners with extensive training and familiarity with routine use of needles in their practice and who are duly licensed to perform these procedures, such as licensed acupuncturists and/or MDs that are licensed in acupuncture.