Dry needling

Dry needling is a term for acupuncture when the acupuncture is performed by practitioners and therapists who have limited or little formal training in acupuncture. The term “dry needling” is purported to describe the technique of using acupuncture needles on trigger points to release tight muscles. This is part of traditional acupuncture therapy, and always has been.

Practitioners and therapists who attempt to draw a distinction between acupuncture and “dry needling” are demonstrating their lack of knowledge of the full range of acupuncture techniques, which has always included the use of “ashi points”, or trigger points in the release of tight or knotted muscles.

The confusion perhaps arises when the distinction is made between “injection therapy”, where substances are injected into acupuncture points, and “dry needling”. Dry needling means using acupuncture needles and not a syringe. So, the distinction is between “injection therapy”, which is not strictly speaking “acupuncture”, and acupuncture.

References

Hong, C.Z (1994b). “Lidocaine injection versus dry needling to myofascial trigger point. The importance of the local twitch response”. American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 73: 256&ndash, 263.
Cummings, T.M. and White, A.R. (2001). “Needling therapies in the management of myofascial trigger point pain”. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 82: 986&ndash, 992.

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