What is the Difference Between Acupuncture and Dry Needling?
Ever been curious on what the difference is between acupuncture and dry needling? Though they both use very thin needles as part of their therapy, they differ greatly on philosophy and application of use. Check in with Dr. Hayden and Dr. Horsley as they dive into the differences between these two modalities.
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Transcript from video on Acupuncture and Dry Needling:
Dr. Hayden: We get a lot of questions in the office about acupuncture and dry needling, so today we wanted to bring Dr. Horsley to answer some of the questions that we frequently hear in the office, especially because I don’t practice acupuncture or dry needling and she’s our resident expert here.
Dr. Hayden: To begin with, Dr. Horsley, what is acupuncture?
Dr. Horsley: Acupuncture is a therapy that has been used for thousands of years from traditional Chinese medicine that utilizes very thin needles in different points throughout the body to bring about symptomatic change. It is oftentimes used for things such as: sleep deprivation, weight loss, or even a lot of people report success with smocking cessation. So it is a therapy that uses different points on the body that, when stimulated, help to bring about symptom change (especially for metabolic based conditions).
Dr. Hayden: So from a physiologic standpoint it is the stimulation of these points that affects body functions?
Dr. Horsley: Yes, so each point affects how blood flows throughout the body as well as impacts the nervous system. This impact on blood flow and the nervous system is key to healing and bringing about change throughout the body. Blood flow is your body’s natural highway that brings hormones, vitamins, mineral, and nutrients to your tissues to initiate symptom changes.
Dr. Hayden: So that is acupuncture, so what is dry needling?
Dr. Horsley: Dry needling also uses those same fine little needles, but as a completely different philosophy behind how it is used. Dry needling is more used in pain reduction and treatment of other musculoskeletal therapies or injuries. The needles are inserted more into muscles, trigger points, attachment points, and different parts of the muscle fascia to bring about symptomatic change in pain, aches, muscle injuries, and things like that.
Dr. Hayden: So from the outside looking in, if I was watching you do acupuncture or dry needling, I might not notice a difference, but you being the practitioner, could say that in this particular person I’m trying to stimulate a weight loss effect and change hormone activity, so I’m needling in these certain ways; whereas this person over here comes in because of a car wreck and had whiplash, so now you’re going to treat them in a different way. However, from the outside looking in, they might look very similar?
Dr. Horsley: 100% correct- very much so. Each of those different points are going to be used in different ways. So in dry needling I’m probably going to use more in specific muscle bellies or in muscle trigger points, whereas in acupuncture I’m gonna be more using points from the Chinese paradigm, called master points or other acupuncture points throughout the body. Sometimes the dry needling points and acupuncture points are the same, because some acupuncture points are in regions of common trigger points, but that is not always the case. So it is true that often times I will use completely different points because I’m trying to address different things.
Dr. Hayden: So if someone calls up the office and they say, hey, I’m looking for acupuncture for this condition or I’m looking for dry needling because of this injury, it doesn’t matter – needle therapy can be used for either person, and you the doctor can say – in this situation we need to be able to use this and in this situation we need to apply it this way.
Dr. Horsley: Exactly. So that is the big thing – whatever condition comes in, I’m going to do a very specific exam to determine what’s the best treatment course for you. Sometimes that is more on the acupuncture side of techniques, and sometimes it is more of the dry needling side- or maybe even a combination of them both. This could be that one session I may do more of an acupuncture style of treatment and another one I may do more of a dry needling style of treatment. So it really depends on each person, each case is different, depending on what I find from my exams.
Dr. Hayden: Is it common to couple acupuncture or dry needling with other things, such as dietary changes, or supplementation and herbs, or with chiropractic, or something like that?
Dr. Horsley: So I’m a little bit biased, but I truly believe that acupuncture and dry needling should be used in conjunction with a lot of other treatments to help to optimize you as fast as possible. This often going to be with nutrition, chiropractic, whole food supplements, and other lifestyle changes, because my goal is to get everyone that health that they deserve in as fast of a way as possible. I can do things for your nervous system – acupuncture and dry needling- all day long and that will help, but if we don’t feed the body effectively then that may limit how fast we are able to bring about change.
Dr. Hayden: Very cool, I often tell patients when they ask if they need chiropractic or if they need to go see Dr. Horsley for acupuncture that if that is where the imbalance is, then of course, that’s exactly what we need to do. However, if someone has a calcium deficiency and I crack their neck all day – we’ve never really fixed the imbalance or the underlying problem and that’s where the benefit comes from working with a doctor that is knowledgeable, like Dr. Horsley, who can look at your body from a nutritional standpoint, from a chiropractic standpoint, and from a dry needling or acupuncture standpoint. This is important because you can try and figure out what is the real cause of the problem rather than just saying today I’m only going to be an acupuncturist and only acupuncture everyone.
Dr. Hayden: So that’s one of the questions that we get the most often regarding acupuncture and dry needling – what is the difference and what is some of the applications of each. So thank you, Dr. Horsley, for spending a few minutes with us and sharing about what the difference between acupuncture and dry needling is. Thank you everybody, we’ll see you next time.
