Dry needling, the way it’s taught and used now, is different than acupuncture for two reasons. First, it’s used simply for a musculoskeletal reason than a holistic medicine reason. One of the terms that’s been kicked around is intramuscular manual therapy, meaning doing manual therapy on the inside of the muscle.
Second, and this is not to take away from acupuncture, I do dry needling in my physical therapy practice. I appreciate traditional Chinese medicine and respect it. When asked if I do acupuncture, my answer would be, “No, but I do dry needling.”