Western dry needling (Dry Needling)<\/a> and Chinese acupuncture (Acupuncture) do share one similarity: both use small, sterile, solid filiform needles inserted into the body. But the two approaches differ significantly in their principles, techniques, and applications, as follows.<\/p>\n\nPrinciples<\/h4>\n\n
Dry needling (Western): Grounded in Western medicine, it targets the neuromuscular and myofascial systems to treat trigger points and relieve muscle pain.<\/p>\n\n
Chinese acupuncture: Grounded in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it focuses on balancing the body’s energy (Qi) along meridians to promote overall health and treat various conditions.<\/p>\n\n
Techniques<\/h4>\n\n
Dry needling (Western): A solid needle is inserted directly into a muscle’s trigger point, and the needle may be moved around within the trigger point area. The needle is usually not left in place for long.<\/p>\n\n
Chinese acupuncture: Small solid needles are inserted at specific acupuncture points along the meridians, and the needles are left in place for about 15\u201330 minutes.<\/p>\n\n
Applications<\/h4>\n\n
Dry needling (Western): Used primarily to treat musculoskeletal pain \u2014 muscle tightness, trigger points, and pain syndromes. It can also improve joint range of motion and muscle function.<\/p>\n\n
Chinese acupuncture: Can treat a wide range of conditions, including musculoskeletal pain, but also digestive problems, headaches, anxiety, insomnia, and allergies \u2014 with an emphasis on restoring balance and promoting overall health.<\/p>\n\n
Summary<\/h4>\n\n
Practitioners: In Thailand, Western dry needling can be performed by rehabilitation physicians, while Chinese acupuncture is performed by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, or by licensed physicians who have completed training in Chinese-style acupuncture.<\/p>\n\n
If you’re interested in Western dry needling to release tight, painful muscle spots, you can consult a rehabilitation medicine specialist at Freesia Rehab Clinic, a rehabilitation and physical therapy clinic on Rama 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How is Western dry needling different from Chinese acupuncture? A side-by-side look at their principles and techniques, to help you choose what suits your symptoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freesiarehabclinic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}