While Dry Needling proponants have fashioned a rebranding of acupuncture as a means to bypass the educational, safety, and licensing requirements necessary to practice acupuncture, it is very important to understand that Dry Needling is a form of acupuncture.  As an acupuncturist, the vast majority of my training hours have been devoted the safe, effective, and incident-free use of acupuncture as a modality and acupuncture needles as a tool.  This training extends well beyond simply the educational requirements necessary for licensure in my state and encompasses thousands of hours of training and study into the physiological mechanisms, anatomical relationships and best practices devoted specifically to acupuncture.  This being the case, after thousands of hours of professional development I can practice with the utmost certainty that my actions will be first and foremost safe, and also able to accomplish the necessary tasks effectively through the use of various techniques developed through the extensive training I have received without ever needing to consider techniques that may have any potential to put the patient at risk.

Sadly, here in my home state of Wisconsin I recently learned of two incidents of patient injury that have occurred within the last several months as a result of PTs practicing Dry Needling.  In my past eight years of practice, I have learned of zero cases of patient injury occurring from either a licensed acupuncturist or an acupuncture-trained MD or DO.  This is due to the extensive educational requirements required by both groups, which is again, devoted entirely to the correct, safe, and effective use of acupuncture and acupuncture needles.

The physiological basis that the PTs are currently using to justify the claim that they are practicing a unique modality is hardly new or unique.  While acupuncture practice has historically been framed in terms that science does not currently recognize, the vast majority of current research into the mechanisms and physiology of acupuncture is directed toward the exact physiological basis that Dry Needling proponants are claiming to employ, as well as many others.  Indeed, having studied these issues extensively myself, nearly all of the research upon which the mechanisms for Dry Needling are justified ARE acupuncture studies.  As such, it should be plainly apparent that any claims to be practicing something different than acupuncture are disingenuous statements for the purpose of circumventing the educational and legal requirements for the practice of acupucture.

I am more than accepting of other types of practitioners utilizing acupuncture.  I witness first-hand what a difference it can make in my patients lives on a daily basis and I am ecstatic that it has been gaining popularity.  However, these practitioners must be adequately trained in order to ensure public safety.  The less adequately trained a practitioner is in the various means to employ the technique, the more likely that practitioner is to utilize poorly-educated decision making or dangerous methods to accomplish the goal.  Acupuncture training, whether at an acupuncture school or in a medical acupuncture training for MDs or DOs, establishes the firm basis for effective and safe practice and provides the framework to make the sort of good clinical decisions that result in safe and satisfied patients.  This has been well established over the course of several thousand years.  For the sake of public safety, please hold those wishing to practice Dry Needling to these standards.