Acupuncture and dry needling are both common terms in Australia, especially for healthcare workers or if you have had a sporting injury or a chronic pain syndrome. While often used interchangeably and regarded as similar if not the same, the two are distinct in terms of treatment scope and role.

Acupuncture is a subspecialty of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), similar to how a neurosurgeon is a subspecialist qualification following a (Western) Medical Degree. This means that an acupuncturist would have similarly spent a minimum of 4-5 years to attain the TCM bachelor degree, and another 7-10 years to undertake internship followed by post graduate studies to achieve rudamentary competency in acupuncture. Most experienced TCM acupuncturists would have had over 20 years of practice, and ongoing learning and professional development.

Dry needling involves a short course that allied health professionals typically take to enhance their skillset and existing practice. Historically coined in the 1970s by Dr Travell, a USA physician, dry needling was a part of treatment for muscular/myofascial pain syndromes. Though almost certainly inspired in some ways by TCM philpsophy and sharing many priciples and mechanisms with acupuncture, dry needling does not originate from TCM, and is simpler and more direct.

One way to mentally distingish the two is: for a sore foot, a dry needling therapist may insert needles around the pain are possibly other parts of the limb. An experienced TCM acupuncturist may only insert one or two needles onto the ear on the opposite side to treat the same problem.

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