As a licensed acupuncturist who had to do 8 years of school, pass 3 national board exams, get certified in Clean Needle Technique, and who has to do continuing education every year specifically in acupuncture, I feel like I am living a surreal experience every single time someone who is NOT an acupuncturist proceeds to tell me what acupuncture is.
Does no one notice that the literal definition of acupuncture is what “dry needling” is defined as? What kind of needles are being used for it? Acupuncture needles. What kind of electro machines? Ones meant for acupuncture needles.
Everything that I have heard a physical therapist or chiropractor or athletic trainer say about acupuncture is wrong. I am quite tired of having someone try to explain my own profession to me. I was taught orthopedic and trigger point acupuncture in school, why else would they make the needles 3, 4, 5 inches long? What is the point of making them that size if “acupuncture is different from dry needling because acupuncture needles don’t go into muscle tissue”- something I have had repeated back to me from PTs/ATs constantly.
95% of acupuncture points inherently overlap with trigger points in the body (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0415641208001239), so how can anyone say that acupuncture and “dry needling” aren’t treating the exact same things. In which case, they can’t give a new name to something that already exists.
So now that we’ve established that there is no difference between dry needling and acupuncture, this comes down to professional integrity. Each of our professions is extremely important to patient care. Yes we are all trained in anatomy but our specializations are vastly different and should be respected as such. We have to uphold higher standards within the medical community and that means proper regulation by each of our respective boards. Using acupuncture needles to perform acupuncture techniques does not fall under the scope of practice of anyone other than acupuncturists. Please oppose this bill.