I am an LAc. That stands for Licensed Acupuncturist. I went to acupuncture school for three years, and graduated with a Master Degree in Oriental Medicine. I passed three national board exams to qualify me to practice acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
You will see other practitioners, like chiropractors or physical therapists saying they do acupuncture. They even advertise trying to get acupuncture patients.
Do you know what training they have? Most of them took a weekend class in how to insert acupuncture needles. Some of them took a weekend dry needling class, online or in person. That is the extent of their training.
You should not allow someone who does not have proper training to insert needles into you. They do not know anything about acupuncture meridians, and how to treat pain adequately.
Acupuncture School:
Year One
- Study 400 acupuncture points, how to locate them, how deep to insert the needle, what ANGLE the needle needs to be inserted, and how to activate the point. How to combine points. Which meridians to treat together. Is it a Yang meridian, or a Yin meridian? How many points can you do on each type of meridian, and each point, to achieve your goals.
- Clean needle technique – antiseptic procedures, and how to keep the patient safe
Year Two
- Over 100 Chinese herbs are memorized. What is the Chinese name, Common name, and Latin name. What is the temperature, function, direction of function, and contraindications for each herb. Which meridian does it enter. Which organ does it enter?
- How to treat diseases. If someone has digestive problems, which points to you use, and which herbal formulas are appropriate. You spend two years, 30 hours per week, learning all this.
Year Three
- Over 100 Chinese herbal formulas. What each formula does, and how to prescribe the right one for each patient. There are thousands of formulas to choose from.
- Student clinic is two years. You treat patients for two years in student clinic before you are allowed to graduate and call yourself an acupuncturist.
If someone wants to use acupuncture on you, even if they call it something else, like Dry Needling, please ask that person if he/she has a degree in Chinese medicine. Ask him/her what training classes were taken. How many hours?
You will not get the results you deserve if you go to someone who just inserts needles into the area where it hurts. You are missing out on all the benefits that Chinese medicine has to offer.
When you look for an acupuncturist, to get the best results, see an LAc.
In other states, the title can be different. In New Mexico acupuncturists are called Doctors of Oriental Medicine. DOM. In Rhode Island, they are called Doctors of Acupuncture, DA. It all depends on the state.
- LAc means licensed acupuncturist
- RN means registered nurse.
- DO means doctor of osteopathy
- DC means doctor of chiropractic, which is also a three year program, but they study chiropractic.
- DDS is doctor of dental surgery, that is a dentist
- LMT is licensed massage therapist
You see where I am headed. These people have a degree, and initials that mean something. You do not go to a massage therapist to get dentistry. You should only See an LAc for acupuncture. Get what you need, and get better much faster.
The state of Texas allows physical therapists to do dry needling with no specific training requirements. Chiropractors can do dry needling in Texas with 50 hours of training. The Texas chiropractic board does not appear to regulate acupuncture. This is the information I have found online. It might be incorrect. Some states do not allow people to insert acupuncture needles without a degree and license in Chinese medicine.
In my opinion, the more acupuncture in the world the better. But I do not like it when people who are not qualified say they do acupuncture, when they do not know what they are doing. The patient is not notified of what training the person has. If they get a bad result, the patient thinks it is acupuncture to blame. They don’t know that the person should not even be doing acupuncture in the first place. Whether you call it acupuncture or dry needling.
At some point, someone will have to be able to require people to have more hours of training to do acupuncture. It is not fair to the public that they do not know what they are getting.
There could be a requirement of 500 hours, or a fair amount of training. The person should know all the acupuncture points, and meridians, and how to combine the points to give someone a safe and effective treatment. They should be legally required to disclose how many hours of training they have had. The government should be regulating this to protect the public.
Most acupuncturists have 2,700 hours of training, including training in Chinese herbs, which is half of Chinese medicine. Acupuncturists take continuing education classes every year.