12/19/2025
What is Dry Needling?
In the wake of a Steelers player TJ Walsh suffering a pneumothorax after a dry needling session, I’ve had a lot of renewed questions from patients and even strangers asking: what exactly is dry needling? Dry needling is a technique performed by physical therapists using acupuncture needles to release tight, bound muscles and tissue. And yes, before you ask, that is also what acupuncture does.
So are physical therapists doing acupuncture? According to NJ law, no. In my professional opinion, dry needling is a very small subset of acupuncture, specifically what I’d call trigger point acupuncture. Many acupuncture points overlap with trigger points for a reason! Acupuncturists can (and do) dry needle, but we also use distal points to balance the entire body and address pain more comprehensively.
Where this gets dicey is education. In NJ, physical therapists are required to complete just 80 hours of training to dry needle, only 40 hours hands-on. Acupuncturists, on the other hand, complete 2,500+ educational hours, plus extensive board exams. My own training also included an additional 2,000 clinical hours.
As for safety: pneumothorax after dry needling is estimated at about 1 in 10,000 cases, while in acupuncture it’s closer to 1 in 1,100,000.
That’s 0.01% vs 0.0009%.
To me, the choice is clear: education matters and Patrick Queen agrees!
🙌🏻🙌🏻Yes Queen!!!🙌🏻🙌🏻
Which would you prefer?
