A better, more honest and effective way to treat certain maladies would be to have PTs work with properly educated and licensed acupuncturists in their practices as part of an integrative approach for the good of the public.  Acupuncturists can just as easily begin to attempt to expan their scope of practice to include manual therapies that could or would impede on PTs, but that is not happening.  We must not destroy the integrity of these professions by having one impede the other w/o the necessary intensive education required as well as going through the proper licensing channels and processes in their respective fields.  Acupuncturists are already licensed and permitted within their scope of practice to insert needles into the skin to prevent or modify or alleviate the perception of pain and/or to normalize physiological functions in the treatment of a body's dysfunctions.

Dry Needling is and should not be included in the scope of practice for physical therapists unless these therapists and the Virginia Medical Board's Council which governs and regulates the practice of acupuncture in Virginia come to a mutual agreement and understanding of the requisite education necessary/required to perform and provide traditional acupuncture practices to the public.  

Dry needling is the insertion of needles without the injection of substances or medication into the skin to achieve a neurophysiological effect to alleviate pain.  The practice of physical therapy involves the treatment of physical pain or movement by manual therapeutic intervention by means of manual therapy techniques and massage, the use of physical agents, mechanical modalities, hydrotherapy, therapeutic exercises with or without assistive devices, joint mobilization, and movement related functional training in self-care, and collaboration with other health care providers in connection with patient care.  Nowhere in the definition of physical therapy is there an express recognition of dry needling or even intramuscular stimulation within its scope of practice.  Modalities used in the practice of physical therepy have never involved the piercing of the skin especially with regards to the use of invasive procedures to alleviate pain and manipulation of muscle tension.  

It is also unreasonable to concede that the Board possesses the authority to significantly expand the scope of practice to include dry needling in a catch-all way through regulation. The promulgation of any new regulation especially when it affects an unknowing public must have a requisite level of specificity that follows general words or ideas.