Patients often tell us how they have had dry needling done in the past by someone like a physical therapist. Many don't understand the difference between dry needling and acupuncture and often just assume they are one in the same.
There are many differences in these techniques.
In addition to the techniques being so different it's also important to acknowledge that when research is done to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture for a particular disharmony or illness these study results are only referring to acupuncture and not dry needling.
To better understand the differences the ASAcu.org has created this article: