Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Health Professions
 
Board
Board of Physical Therapy
 
chapter
Regulations Governing the Practice of Physical Therapy [18 VAC 112 ‑ 20]
Action Practice of dry needling
Stage Proposed
Comment Period Ended on 7/26/2019
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7/26/19  3:11 pm
Commenter: Peggy Belmont, Physical Therapist

Support to regulation for physical therapists doing dry needling
 

I and alll physical therapists are well trained in anatomy and therapeutic treatment of the body to be sufficient to appropriately practice using the modality of dry needling. Physical therapists who perform dry needling know they must supplement their basic knowledge by obtaining specific postgraduate education and training in dry needling.  These experts are instrumental to the health care  practice of treatment of pain and neuromuscular facilitation of movement disorders.  We are prepared and readily available to help Virginia citizens who suffer from pain or movement disorders.

We do not practice acupuncture, the Chinese medicine of  practice based on traditional Chinese medicine and performed by acupuncturists. Dry needling is a part of modern Western medicine principles used for more than 50 years in health care professions including physical therapists and supported by research done by scientists, physicians, and physical therapists. This dry needling is not injection of medicine rather the use of small injections that change the chemical reactions of the body to foster normalization of movement and reduction of pain.

 Please, in these days of opiod overuse, support this use of a physical therapy practice that is safer and more responsive to effective reduction of pain and the improvement of movement capabilities.

 

 

CommentID: 74389