Action | Practice of dry needling |
Stage | NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 12/30/2015 |
I submit my position on this issue from a patient's perspective. I have been a patient of a licensed acupuncture physician who was born, trained and educated in China. She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Master's degree in acupuncture at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is Board Certified. I presented to her 4 years ago with significant nerve damage as a result of a problematic back surgery. As a result of her skill and training I have made substantial improvement over these years and can participate in all activities of daily living.
While I appreciate the talent and skill of Physical Therapists and believe those skills are necessary and have benefitted many folks, to extend their area of expertise to dry needling would be a grave disservice to the patient. Call it what you will, "dry needling" is a subset of "acupuncture". If the best result is the end game for the patient, why not have the best trained and skilled physicians performing the science and art of acupuncture. If a Physical Therapist believes a patient would benefit from dry needling, the PT, in the best interest of the patient would make the referral to a licensed acupuncture physician.