One of my pet peeves is when PTs call dry needling "acupuncture." Some of my professors have called it this, and I've even seen the term in some PT research articles on dry needling. This certainly does not help our case that dry needling is really completely different from acupuncture, and confuses the public as well as lawmakers.
Agreed. The current opinion of the California Acupuncture Board:
"Dry needling technique is a modern Western medical modality that is not related to Traditional Chinese acupuncture in any way.
Dry needling has its own theoretical concepts, terminology, needling technique and clinical application.
Dry Needling was first developed in 1940's by Janet Travell, MD, former medical adviser to White House (JFK's physician). Thus, dry needling a.k.a biomedical acupuncture is based on modern understanding of human anatomy and patho-physiology and on modern SCientific research, drawing heavily on leading-edge neurological research using modern imaging techniques such as Functional MRls of the brain.
Different terminology for dry needling technique have been created; for example trigger point needling, dry needling technique, intra muscular stimulation (IMS) and biomedical acupuncture are all in use.
It is important to remember that physical therapists who are increasingly using dry needling - particularly for pain management and trauma rehabilitation:
• do not claim to practice acupuncture,• do not use acupuncture TCM theories, meridian acupoints and terminology,
• do not use acupuncture diagnosis like tongue and pulse,• do not use acupuncture needling techniques.
Practice dry needling by physical therapists is a worldwide trend; dry needling presently is used in the USA (11 states), UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Brasilia and many other countries.
Please, note: Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (TCM-style acupuncture) is based on ancient Chinese concepts of meridian systems, such as Qi or energy channels, using tongue and pulse assessment, and uses a variety of needle manipulation techniques. TCM Acupuncture does not share any medical ground with Dry Needling Techniques. It is pointless to compare hours of training for TCM acupuncturists and medically trained physical therapists.
Definitely physical therapists will have more oranges and TCM acupuncturists will have more apples."
-Dr. Yun-tao Ma
http://www.acupuncture.ca.gov/about_us/materials/20100819_10e.pdf
