Dry needling is a term often used by physical therapists and chiropractors to describe a technique for muscle stimulation using a needle. It’s called dry needling because nothing is injected into the body with the needle. An acupuncture needle is used for this procedure. Dry needling is focused on using strong stimulation on the muscles to get them to release. It’s used directly on the painful area and often with electro-stimulation. It gives results for a few hours but the initial root of the issue is not addressed, only the local area of pain.
Acupuncture, on the other hand, does not use strong stimulation like electro-stimulation. It’s based on channel theory (meridians) and using points to heal the body naturally. Acupuncture gives instant results to relieve pain and address the real cause of the pain by treating the root of the issue. Healing and pain relief take place simultaneously.
As a result, the experience for the patient will be a lot different between these two forms of treatment. Acupuncture is not painful at all, while dry needling can be.
Another key difference between dry needling and acupuncture is the amount of training required to administer each of these forms of treatment. Acupuncture requires significantly more training. It requires graduating from an accredited school and hundreds of hours of both classroom training and clinical practice experience.
Dry needling, on the other hand, only requires minimal training. In Tennessee, for example, physical therapists only need to complete 24 hours of classroom training to be able to administer dry needling treatment.
When seeking an acupuncture treatment, make sure you choose to get acupuncture from an acupuncturist! At Access Acupuncture, we practice a highly effective style of acupuncture, called the Balance Method, which provides instant relief, is highly effective, gives long lasting results and can even treat internal medical issues. It’s extremely rare that you will see us needling a painful area. We provide results without having to cause more pain 😉
Needling the same area where you have pain is called Dry Needling. This is never the first choice of a Balance Method acupuncturist. The highly effective points are normally located on a different part of the body.
