What Is Dry Needling Essay Example for Free

What Is Dry Needling Essay Recently, Physical Therapists have been seeking to incorporate what is being named Dry Needling into their patient treatment regimens. Dry Needling is indistinguishable from acupuncture, yet is often based on two or three day seminars, featuring only 16 to 24 hours of classroom education with no needle technique clinical internship training being included. Is Dry Needling the same as Acupuncture? â€Å"Yes,† according to all major state and national organizations involved in the certification, professional representation and educational development of the field of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. The Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM) states â€Å"It is the position of the CCAOM that any intervention utilizing dry needling is the practice of acupuncture, regardless of the language utilized in describing the technique.† 1 Medicare agrees. â€Å"The only code for Medicare that would cover something like dry -needling would be an acupuncture code,† said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Doyle .† Will Dry Needling practice affect Acupuncture practice? Patients do not discern between types of needling treatments. When a patient receives a therapy involving needling, their perception is that they have received acupuncture. When acupuncture is performed by practitioners without adequate classroom and clinical education, the experience of acupuncture is not optimal. When acupuncture is performed by practitioners without needling technique education, without Clean Needle Technique certification, and without needle technique clinical internship, the experience of needling can be hazardous. Adversely performed acupuncture negatively impacts all those practitioners who are licensed to practice acupuncture. Negative patient feedback especially affects the availability of new patients for Licensed Acupuncturists. It makes good business sense for practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture to safeguard, protect and regulate the teaching and practice of their chosen healing art, Acupuncture. Coalition for Safe Acupuncture Practice seeks to inform and warn the public of the healthcare hazards and the potential for serious injury that exists in undergoing Dry Needling treatment by any healthcare practitioners, including Physical Therapists, who are not also fully trained and licensed as Acupuncturists.