I have been a patient of both physical therapy and acupuncture; I have seen effective results gleaned from being a patient of both professions. As such, I value the therapies that each profession is able to offer me. However, I would not go to my physical therapist for 'dry needling' as, from my understanding, my physical therapist is not adequately trained to perform needling and there does not seem to be a stringent certification process as their does for licensed acupuncturists. As of now, I would only go to see my licensed acupuncturist for acupuncture/dry needling. 

However you want to call the procedure, needling is an invasive procedure that makes use of a filiform needle to break the skin in order to release tension - whether along a supposed acupuncture meridian or area of pain/tension in a patient. To me, they are the same thing but simply named differently. However, the main point that I would like to make is that licensed acupuncturists are required to go through a certain number of education hours, training hours, and supervised practice hours before they must take a series of examinations that will then allow them to apply for a license. They must then be vetted and licensed before they can begin practicing acupuncture. Once licensed, there are stringent regulations in place that make sure that these practitioners have undergone the proper training and that they have yearly requirements (continuing education hours) and advisory/reporting boards to make sure that all practitioners stay in line with the standards of the profession and legal regulations of the state. From what I've heard and read, licensed acupuncturists can have up to and even over 3,000 hours of training and education. There are even some acupuncturists I know now enrolled in doctoral programs to increase their knowledge.

In regards to Physical Therapy, there does not seem to be any standards in place with regards to how many hours would be sufficient for them to practice needling. There also does not seem to be any regulation in place that would control the certification or practice of needling by physical therapists. It also troubles me that some PTs were practicing dry needling without any regulation being in place or practicing a procedure outside of their scope-of-practice. I know many other patients who were unaware that their physical therapists were practicing without having been certified (as needling was not in their scope-of-practice and so they were practicing outside of it). Even though regulation has been pushed forward to allow dry needling to be considered as part of the scope-of-practice of physical therapists, there are still no required training hours for PTs in place and there seems to be no expressed way of controlling who practices needling. There are no standards or requirements in place. This startles me as needling is an invasive procedure; as such, there really should be a specific, required number of training hours for any professional to practice needling and a certification process that makes sure that those who practice needling have indeed undergone the proper amount of training and clinical practice - like that for acupuncturists. 

Again, I believe that both professions have invalulable therapies to offer the public. However, I do not believe that PTs should be allowed to have needling in their scope-of-practice as they traditionally have not worked with, trained for and studied invasive procedures. Even more importantly, this regulation does not address the requirements that would be necessary for a professional to safely practice needling. How many hours are needed? What sort of training and how about supervised clinical practice? Certification to make sure that they did go through the required trianing? Advisory boards to check on the PTs who do practice needling. The public deserves to be protected; many are not aware of the training requirements for each profession. In this case, many are unaware that those who currently practice dry needling are doing so without proper trianing and outside of their scope-of-practice. This regulation does not add any training or education requriements; it simply puts needling into PTs' scope-of-practice.