I am not a physician but a patient. Over the last year I have had exception results with dry needling. My PT not only provided the typical massage therapy needed for some muscular issues I have had recently, dry needling was also incorporated into my treatment for the specific deep treatment of some muscles that could not be treated with common massaging techniques. The results have been exceptionally positive in the so- called focusing on specific “trigger points” of the muscles with “knots”. I was 100% cured of my past painful condition.

I addition I wanted to add that last year before I took on the PT dry needling, I first tried acupuncture treatment for about three months which did not resolve my muscular problems. It seemed to relax me for the session but would quickly dissipate and the pain would return unlike the dry needling I had done which targeted the specific muscle area and the pain continued to fade away more and more with each treatment. I decided to try dry needling therapy after obtaining some detailed info from a well known physician in my area and after reading through the differences between the two treatments, it appeared that the dry needling was the optimum treatment for my condition. In addition, I questioned my pain management doctor on why he recommended acupuncture versus dry needling and he stated that it was because the “acupuncturist was associated with his practice and was located near by”. On a personal note had to say I was disappointed in that type of medical recommendation, business before patient’s health.

In closing I would like to voice my personal opinion on this regulatory town hall. I am a strong advocate that all potential medical practices that can benefit any and all tax paying patients should be allowed. Our objective should be to continually provide all potential patents all the possible options in treating their respective medical conditions. To determine that we should simply obtain all the available technical/medical supporting documentation for any specific treatment and if deemed acceptable, the specific treatment should be incorporated into our states medical program. This way you eliminate all emotional opinions and biases to one specific option. After taking the time to read a number of the comments presented in this online town hall, a majority of them do not have any technical/medical supporting info. What is very disheartening is that many of these comments that are against PT dry needling is because they are basically “taking business away from the acupuncture specialists”. As I stated previously we should allow all acceptable medical treatments that cure patient’s problems to be available to all and allow them to choose which is the appropriate treatment for them. To provide a sound conclusion in this case, “The Department of Health Professions” would provide sound judgment on the medical feasibility on what works based on professional medical documentation. No matter which medical practice is incorporated into the program and no matter how long the training process is for the specific medical practice, the key to success is that the medical associate performing the subject process no matter which one it is, must execute it correctly which would result in positive treatment of the patients ailment.