Acupuncture and Dry needling

written by Henri 14th may 2021

In the marketplace there is always some confusion regarding what is Acupuncture and What is Dry needling or Western acupuncture. Many clients come to our clinic with the wrong idea of which is which.

Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture

Acupuncture is part of traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It involves inserting acu-needles into acupuncture points in the attempt to correct the body’s flow of Qi and Blood. It’s a full-body approach to treatment that uses various needle depths and locations to accomplish the desired healing. TCM type acupuncture acts on both the nervous, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems. The benefit of this style of acupuncture is that often pain, inflammation and internal sickness are ameliorated. If practiced in the traditional manner, acupuncture is part medicine, part spirituality. You can identify practitioners of traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture by how they treat the body holistically and try to ascertain the cause of discomfort through a process called differential diagnostics.

Western Medical Acupuncture (Dry Needling)

This is the type of acupuncture is often called Dry needling, which is a subset of acupuncture that therapists primarily use to release painful muscle knots. Western acupuncture stimulates the nervous system, with a range of resulting positive effects. It is mainly used to treat musculoskeletal pain, including myofascial trigger point pain. It is also effective for postoperative pain and nausea

While TCM acupuncture is used for a variety of reasons, dry needling is specifically used for pain and tension with a muscular cause. Therapists use only a few needles and target specific muscle locations. The goal is to insert the needle in a muscle knot (trigger point) to cause it to release. This often resolves pain and tension in nearby areas. 

Acupuncture can include dry needling; dry needling cannot include acupuncture.

In our clinic we specialise in TCM style acupuncture for all ACC musculoskeletal complaints, sleep disorders, headaches, menstrual pain