I can understand why athletic trainers would want dry needling within their scope because needling is an effective method of treatment. HOWEVER, patient safety should be paramount to this department’s concern. When practitioners are not well trained, misinformation will grow and patient safety would be at risk.

In acupuncture, we utilize cupping as a form of treatment. I have had a medical doctor consult me when a physical therapist cupped his patient too aggressively. The physical therapist only told a patient “something is wrong internally and you’ll have to get treatment for that”. Nothing was wrong. The physical therapist had left the cups on for too long nor did they understand the Chinese medicine theory behind different color bruises we may see. This physical therapist legally met the requirements but induced panic into their patient because they lacked experience and knowledge behind their “easy” treatment. I wonder how many more patients had to deal with this and received unnecessary testing and unnecessary stress from people who have not been adequately trained. Opening up dry needling to athletic trainers would do something similar. They may learn how to put a needle into a muscle but they may not understand the breadth and depth of changes to the human body. Some dry needling can induce headaches but trainers would not be able to understand why and how to prevent such side effects.