Dry needling is called trigger point needling in the language of Acupuncture. They are trying to rename and repackage acupuncture without doing the necessary schooling to perform acupuncture.  There has been many cases where dry needling is performed by a non acupuncturist and it has lead to pneumothorax or nerve damage since the training was a weekend course instead of 4 years it takes to be an acupuncturist.  Also I wanted to correct a comment below for support says Athletic Trainers can do dry needling in California, I want to clarify no one can do dry needling/trigger point needling in California except Acupuncturists.  Please don't let the athletic trainers do dry needling without the training an acupuncturist does.