Dry Needling is a very safe and extremely effective treatment intervention in the Physical therapy Practice. Let's look at the facts to support this arguement:

1. American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)'s Statement on Physical Therapy Scope of Practice: "Barring prohibitive language in the state’s physical therapy licensure statue, the performance of dry needling by a physical therapist may be determined by the state regulatory board to be allowed, provided that the physical therapist is competent to do so, and does not profess to be engaging in the practice of another profession.”
2. Definition of Dry Needling: Dry needling is a skilled intervention used by physical therapists that uses a thin filiform needle to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points, muscular and connective tissues for the management of nueromusculoskeletal pain and movement impairments.
3. Defintion of Accupuncture: Acupuncture refers to a form of health care, based on a theory of energetic physiology that describes and explains the interrelationship of the body organs or functional with an associated acupuncture point or combination of points located on “channels” or “meridians”.
4. **** By defnition - Dry Needling in a Physical Therapist's profession and Accupuncture ARE NOT THE SAME
5. A study by Brady et al in 2013 entitled: "Adverse events following trigger point dry needling: a prospective survey of chartered physiotherapists" found that out of 7,629 patients treated by 39 therapists, only 1,463 (or 19.2% of them) experienced MILD adverse events (bruising, bleeding, and pain - side effects that we are educated to discuss with patients and inform them of their possibility PRIOR to treatment). NO patients suffered serious adverse events, and their estimated risk of a serious adverse event from trigger point dry needling is less than or equal to 0.04%.

I am a 3rd year physical therapy student and have taken a semester-long course where I have received my Dry Needling Level 1 Certification. From experience I can say that with this training in conjunction with my Doctoral level of education, I was provided with all the knowledge and practice I need to perform this intervention on my furture patients. I would also like to add to the PT side of the economic arguement by saying that health insurance companies will typically NOT pay for accupuncture but WILL pay for dry needling by physical therapists - something to consider for the consumers. Needling is an intervention that should be allowed to be used by ANY medical pratitioner that has recieved the proper amount of training as defined by the practice acts of each state. One intervention cannot belong SOLELY to one profession.