12/13/2025
Dry needling is a term used for a style of acupuncture (the same needles are used) that is generally not practiced by acupuncturists. It tends to be physical therapists, chiropractors, athletic trainers, etc. Some states have banned some of these practitioners from doing it. Sometimes acupuncturists will say they do dry needling as well, as a way of taking back what is ours, but there’s actually a vast difference in the training of acupuncturists in comparison to the others: thousands of hours of additional training, over years of supervision, in comparison to what are often just weekend courses for those other professions. So, as acupuncturists, we often get upset when we see things like this - another profession encroached on our scope of practice when it wasn’t part of their scope in the first place, and what’s worse is that they did it in a completely amateur way, which resulted in hospital time for this football player. Needling anywhere on the torso is something very serious to do, which requires a lot of care and education to do safely, and dry needling is often too forceful (and the practitioners not trained adequately enough) to justify it. Dry needling is also a much less effective form of musculoskeletal pain and tightness relief in comparison to other styles of acupuncture.
Is dry needling common for NFL players? How long will the Steelers' star be sidelined? Here's what we know.
