Action | Practice of dry needling |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 2/24/2017 |
I am a Licensed Acupuncturist in California and North Carolina who had to have a four year education and a Masters degree in order to safely insert acupuncture needles.
Dry needling is the practice of acupuncture. Dry needling involves insertion of the same FDA-regulated acupuncture needles into the same “trigger points” that have been used in acupuncture for millennia for the same purpose of providing therapeutic relief. Claims that “dry needling” was an invention distinct from acupuncture because it is not based on “meridians” or “energy flows” reflects a gross misunderstanding of acupuncture and are not factually credible.
Dry needling training is entirely inadequate to protect public safety and consumers. Most dry needling courses involve only one or two weekends of training and does not include any of the supervised clinical training that has been critical to providing the on hand experience necessary to provide safe treatments for our patients.
Please stop the unsafe and illegal dry needling done by physical therapists immediately!