Don't let misleading statements about dry needling or physical therapists' certification and training threaten the availability of a safe and effective treatment for healthcare consumers.

Dry needling, as performed by licensed physical therapists, involves targeting trigger points within soft tissue (such as muscle) to invoke a physiologic response, allowing the PT to progress treatments for improved range of motion and pain relief. Physical therapy treatments are founded in medical science and evidence-based practice.

Physical therapists undergo rigorous training and education, both in the classroom and clinic, just to obtain the entry-level degree required to practice, and they must obtain significant training beyond that to be certified to dry needle in Virginia. Many of them have a clinical doctorate degree.

As a Virginia physical therapy student currently halfway through my 3-year, full-time graduate program, I can provide some information on the requirements for my entry-level degree. It involves 100 credit hours (which translates into about 30 hours of class time, per week, for 80 weeks - plus an additional minimum of 1,520 hours practicing in a number of clinical settings under a licensed PT's supervision), and includes courses on topics such as:

• gross anatomy (the same course and cadaver dissection lab taken by other health professions students, such as physician assistants)
• histology (cellular level studies)
• multiple semesters of in-depth musculoskeletal examination, pathology, and treatment
• courses specifically devoted to differential diagnosis, screening for medical pathologies that require a different health professional, and extensive training in when and how to refer a patient to a different medical specialist
• neuroanatomy and the rehabilitation of neurological pathologies
• research methods in order to have the skills necessary to effectively evaluate the latest medical and scientific evidence

The above are merely highlights of a typical physical therapy program. I can personally attest to spending a standard week of 70+ hours studying and learning about the body, which I will do for three years before I'm even licensed. Each class we take, regardless of the topic, emphasizes the importance of screening for and identifying medical emergencies, as well as patients and pathologies that are not appropriate for PT and/or not appropriate for dry needling.

For a PT to maintain his/her license in Virginia, he/she must spend 30 hours in certified, continuing education courses every two years. For a PT to be dry-needling certified, he/she must further obtain a minimum of 54 post-professional training hours - and that's merely for the lowest level of dry needling certification. Our curriculum and professional practice also require us to communicate regularly with other health professionals (such as nurses, doctors, surgeons, PAs, and pharmacists, to name a few), which adds to our understanding of our scope of practice within the broader field of health sciences.

There should be no doubt that dry needling falls within our scope and that physical therapists are qualified to do it.

Dry needling provides much-needed pain relief to patients suffering from myofascial trigger points. PTs who are dry-needling certified are thoroughly qualified to perform it. Don't let misleading statements about dry needling or physical therapists' certification and training threaten the availability of a safe and effective treatment for healthcare consumers.