I have experience both with acupuncture as well as dry needling.

Acupuncture experiences: as a volunteer patient participant a few times with the Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine in Sugar Grove, NC, and subsequent treatments from certified specialts from this school.  

Dry needling experiences: with my local physical therapy office, Solutions Physical Therapy in Old Town Alexandria.

These techniques are different both in execution and desired outcome.  And both were efficient at resolving the issues at hand.  I felt safe in both environments, and in good hands.  I absolutely believe in both cases that practitioners be certified.  Those who have performed dry needling on me ARE certified.  Personally, I would like to see this technique stay in the physical therapy offices so that one specialist is alinged with my physical issue and end goals, rather than having two in two different locations trying to attain the same (or possibly even different) end goals.  Too many cooks in the kitchen kind of scenario.  

Coming from a skeptic (I am terrified of needles, and initially questioned the benfits of acupuncture until attending Jung Tao clinics as a guest patient), both techniques have been highly beneficial to me.  In the PT realm, years back, I suffered two small tears in my meniscus.  I did PT for months and then hit a wall.  The pain simply would not go away.  So my PT suggested dry needling, and with approval from my surgeon, we gave it a go. That very night was the first night in 6 months I played a game of soccer with absolutely zero pain.  We continued treatments, just a few into the next two weeks, and never looked back.  That was it, and I was back to running and playing soccer for years thereafter without issue.  My more recent injury was far more traumatic--severe ankle sprain with fully torn ligament and partially torn tendon.  Again, I did PT for many months, and again, we hit a wall.  With the backing of my surgeon (and I do want to emphasize this, that another professional who has full knowledge of my current physical history is agreeing to this method of treatment) I once more implemented the dry needling technique in my PT office.  And again, it did wonders.  I won't explain why (there is a science to it that I hope you all are aware of), but it was the right call for where I was and what was going on with the muscles in my leg/ankle at that time.  I once again returned to sports, never having to jump onto an operating table.  

I understand the same outcome could possibly come from seeing an acupuncturist for needling; however, my experience is that the techniques are different, and the implementation of the dry needling technique in the physical therapy setting makes sense and can often be essential in the healing process of patients.  I have never had a bad experience with nedling in PT, and would 100 times out of 100 prefer to have a trusted therapist perform this technique over being shuffled between two practitioners.  This way we work as a tight team, stay focused, and get the job done.

I'm also a realist, and understand that certification for these practices vary quite a bit.  Even state-to-state.  So, I would suggest leaving this to patients to decide.  Allow physical therapy offices to train for and use the dry needling technique, but give patients the decision to choose if they want to have it done by their therapist, or by an acupuncturist.  ...Seems reasonable.

bp