Is Dry Needling Acupuncture? A Doctor Explains the Facts
In today’s article, we’re going to cover some key differences between dry needling and acupuncture that you should know. There may have been some social media videos professing the wonders of this new practice called dry needling scrolling across your screen as you wait in line at the grocery store. But what exactly is dry needling and is it something that you should be incorporating into your wellness routine? Learn about all of that and more from today’s article. We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with dry needling, so please sound off in the comments.
One local woman shared her painful and shocking dry needling experience with us recently. Not only was it incredibly uncomfortable, but her doctor also performed dry needling right through her jeans! Please beware. If any provider is needling right through your clothing, we would strongly suggest you ask them to take the needles out and to leave their office and never to return. This is not considered clean needle technique in any way shape or form.
What Is “Dry Needling”? It Sounds Like Some New Intravenous Drug Craze!
Don’t worry, it’s not about hardcore drugs, but it is hard on your deep muscle tissue, can pop your lungs causing a pneumothorax, can cause nerve damage and can cause pain, if not done correctly. Dry needling looks similar to acupuncture, in fact, dry needling is a new term but has always been a formal part of Chinese medicine. Acupuncture involves the practice of inserting specialized, filiform, needles into a patient’s skin at targeted areas, and so does this new dry needling, but that’s about where the similarities end in today’s world of dry needling.
We caution you about receiving this type of treatment and urge you to avoid it altogether unless it is performed by an actual licensed, board certified acupuncturist and doctor of acupuncture, like those at Eagle Acupuncture in Eagle, Idaho right outside of the Boise Area. To be clear, this is not an MD who has learned acupuncture, but an L.Ac. or a DAcCHM. Look for those specific credentials for the most in-depth training in needle techniques, years of needling classes, advance needle technique and clean needle certification. This is because dry needling is typically done by a person with only 30 hours of training, no cadaver needle practice, and no practical clinical needling practice on humans in a clinic, no board exam, no actual needling license and no required continuing education. To make a comparison, our DAcCHM Dr. Kristen Burris has over 5,500 hours of training, not 30. She is dual board certified in both acupuncture (that included dry needling techniques) and is also licensed in herbal medicine and practices functional medicine and medical grade microneedling. She took four different board exams and passed both a National Licensing Exam and California License Exam, the most advanced licensing available. Additionally, she has a clean needle certificate and trained on cadavers. Both Dr. Burris and Mr. Burris have taught school to other students in acupuncture classes as well.
Dry needling remains a highly sensitive subject today with many physical therapists, chiropractors and osteopaths saying it has absolutely nothing to do with acupuncture. The facts are this: Dry needling is acupuncture. All acupuncturists know this worldwide. Dry Needling is simply untrained acupuncture with usually only 30 hours. We have proof from our texts, our trainings, and our education that dry needling has been around in the acupuncture world for centuries. This is not a new therapy and anyone who tells you differently should raise a huge red flag in your integrity alarm. We fully respect P.T.’s who love acupuncture and just can’t stomach 6 more years of school. They did their years of training for physical therapy. Those who admit to the true roots of this medicine and thank acupuncture for this new skillset get more respect than those who deny the origins of this practice.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, including the art of acupuncture, trigger points are released and treated with a filiform needle, an acupuncture needle, that is now call ‘dry needling’. However, this technique, we acupuncturists have mastered, has been documented, taught and written about since before the time of Christ over 2,000 years ago. Inspiring, right?
Physical Therapists claim the technique was created by accident when experimenting with injecting saline solution into muscle spasms. The muscle knots dissolved by just placing the hypodermic needles in the right location- sound like acupuncture but with a bigger needle? This proved to the experimenters that the saline solution was totally unnecessary, hence the term dry needling emerged because there are no drugs, nor saline, just a large, thick, needle penetrating into the muscle. But hypodermic needles cause a lot of pain, and trauma to the surrounding area. Instead they exchanged their massive needles for our tiny filiform acupuncture needles and rebranded them as “dry needling” needles.
The identical needle technique is applied in both professions including Acupuncturists, P.T.s, Chiro’s and M.D.’s except Chinese Medicine discovered it more than 2,000 years ago and incorporated into one of the many techniques licensed Acupuncturists use in their daily practice. The technique is actually called Ashi needling. ‘Ashi’ translates as: areas on the body, when pressed, cause a painful reaction. This is a basic style of acupuncture because it doesn’t require memorization of anatomy nor acupuncture point location (there are over 200 points) but it is still essential the practitioner memorizes the safe depth the needle can penetrate in the body. This is critical knowledge that takes years of memorization for Acupuncturists due to the number of points on the body. If you get the depth wrong, catastrophic problems like emergency pneumothorax that require immediate medical attention. Once a pneumothorax occurs it puts the patient at a high risk of spontaneous pneumothorax in the future. When dry needling came on the scene due to it’s lack of education pneumothorax increased by over 500%.
References to dry needling in acupuncture appear in the following ancient medical text:
Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing) – motor point also called trigger point contractions; on and off acupuncture channel points can be found anywhere on the body.
Sun Si Miao (581-682 CE) – Ashi needling into painful areas of the body including motor and trigger points.
Ling Shu Chapter 13 – Ashi on and off acupuncture channel points, can be found anywhere on the body
Dry Needling Is More Painful Than Acupuncture
There are many people who use acupuncture sessions to relax, reset the nervous system and set the body at ease. That just isn’t the case for dry needling. It can be therapeutic in that it can alleviate pain, but it is not a relaxing treatment. The process of dry needling should require more advanced needle techniques due to its deeper penetration into muscles. Additionally, the objective often is to elicit a local twitch response (LTR) at either an acupuncture point (although they aren’t trained in acupuncture point location) or a myofascial trigger point, which reside deep in the muscle belly. This is often very painful and alarming to patients as it is an involuntary spinal cord reflex where the muscle fibers, in a taut band of muscles, contract. This tends to be much more painful than acupuncture. This added pain during the dry needling process can absolutely increase your stress levels instead of reducing them. If any provider suggests to you that you need dry needling, we suggest you say, thank you, but not today. Then call us for a truly, educated and healing experience.
What Is The Difference In Training Needed For Acupuncture Vs Dry Needling?
Here’s where things really get wild. When you walk into an acupuncturist’s office you will be treated by the most experienced providers with needles (this is not the same as an MD, ND, DC who practices “acupuncture”: they only have100-300 hours in training). Our licensed acupuncturists have 5,500 hours of practice and experience. That translates into 6 ½ years in Chinese Medical School training. Whereas shockingly, a dry needling practitioner is only required to have a minimum of 30 hours of training. 30 hours is one weekend. Would you trust your body to any random person who just started their craft a week ago and studied for one weekend, never practiced needling for years before being allowed to touch a patient? We wouldn’t either! And we definitely can’t, in good conscience, recommend that you do so either. A licensed acupuncturist is also required to pass a strenuous board exam while, you guessed it, a dry needle specialist is not. Our providers have the most extensive training in needle techniques. Dr. Kristen Burris DAcCHM, L.Ac. and Tony Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M. both are board certified in acupuncture.
At the end of Dr. Kristen Burris’ doctorate, she had 5,500 hours of training. That is 6 and a half years of postgraduate work. You just cannot be proficient in needling in 30, 50, or even 100 hours of training. Even dog groomers in Boise, Idaho require more training than that.
For The Road
We hope you enjoyed learning about the differences between acupuncture and dry needling practices in Boise. If you would like to know more about this or any of our excellent services, we are happy to help. Just contact us and we can go over your options and help you find the best path for your chronic health problems, pain management or hormone balancing or fertility goals. You don’t live near us? No problem. We offer telemedicine coaching with our mastery in complex conditions treated with herbal medicine, supplements and lifestyle changes. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation, please reach out to us HERE.