I am a Family Nurse Practitioner & Acupuncturist trained in Dry Needling. I can say definitively after being trained in Dry Needling that it is absolutely a form of trigger point acupuncture. It is going into acupuncture points with acupuncture needling. The Physical Therapists (PT) may not know that they are using classical acupuncture points since their training is so limited.   Precautions for pneumothorax & pregnancy were barely mentioned in the training; this is dangerous.

PT Dry Needling acupuncture is an effective intervention for some people but the training is not adequate; a minimum requirement for the PTs should be the same amount of training as the MDs do for acupuncture, which is 300 hour (not a weekend of training).  If the PTs are going to use this intervention then it should be called acupuncture; call it anything else (like Dry Needling) & pretending it is not acupuncture would be just using "alternative facts". It is irresponsible & unsafe for the state government of Virginia to allow these regulations on Dry Needling to pass. It is a conflict-of-interest to allow a 30-year instructor of Dry Needling to be on the Board of Physical Therapy to write the regulations on Dry Needling; she has a monetary interest in Dry Needling. Also the Board of Physical Therapy & the Board of Health completely ignored the thousands of negative comment given in December 2015 during the last public comment on Dry Needling regulation. Thus far the Board of Physical Therapy & the Board of Health have been unethical & unsafe with these proposed regulations in regards to Dry Needling. I hope the state government of Virginia will put the health and safety of people of Virgina first by at least requiring the physical therapist to meeting the same requires as Medical Doctor for acupuncture & that Dry Needling will be referred to as Dry Needling Acupuncture because Dry Needling is acupuncture.