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Alternative Medicine Alternative Medicine Basics

Finding an Acupuncturist

Summary & Participants

For some, ''being on pins and needles'' describes a nervous or excited state. For others, pins and needles are used to balance the flow of energy through the body. Acupuncture is growing in popularity throughout the West. But what is it all about?

Medically Reviewed On: January 31, 2006

Webcast Transcript

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Welcome to our webcast. I'm David Folk Thomas. You've heard the expression "being on pins and needles." Well, what about having pins and needles on you? That's right, we're talking about acupuncture today, and as you may know, that's the practice of sticking tiny little needles into the body. We're going to find out what it's all about. Joining me, two experts on the subject. To my left is Dr. Ben Kligler. He's the medical director of the New Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing in New York City. Sitting next to Dr. Kligler is William Kaplinidis. He is a licensed acupuncturist and department head of Allied Arts at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine here in New York City. Thanks to both of you for joining us today.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Dr. Kligler, if they're watching this and they say, "Maybe this is for me," how should they go about finding an acupuncturist?

DR. BENJAMIN KLIGLER: It depends somewhat on where they are. If they're in a big city, for example, in New York, you can certainly call one of the acupuncture training schools. I think in any of these disciplines if you are in a community that's a little bit small, a lot of it has to do with reputation, so they should ask around. Their doctor might know somebody, they might not, but their friends might have been to someone, and reputation is a very important part of finding somebody good. Once you find somebody who is recommended, you look at their credentials, you see that they've trained in one of the accredited schools and that they've passed the national board exam, and then you know you're probably in good hands.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Are there unlicensed acupuncturists out there?

DR. BENJAMIN KLIGLER: There's a big variation from state to state. Actually, the rules regarding doctors doing acupuncture, physicians, are a lot more lax than the rules regarding acupuncturists doing acupuncture.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: You kind of think, "Oh, you've already gone to med school."

DR. BENJAMIN KLIGLER: Yeah, "You're a doctor, so you know how to do it," which is not actually true. I mean, there are good physician training programs in acupuncture.

I consider myself competent, although not as skilled as a licensed acupuncturist who has done much more training. There are states where you can just go ahead and do acupuncture as a doctor with no training and you're within the parameters of your license, so people need to know in their state what the rules are regarding physician acupuncture. Regarding licensed acupuncturists, if you go for somebody who has passed the national board exam, that's at least a minimum standard that you can trust.

You can't underestimate how important reputation is, so asking around in your community, finding out who people have been to, how they felt they were treated, what kind of results they got, that's really good information, and that's where you have to start. Then you can look at somebody's credentials.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: That's all the time we have now. I want to thank both of you, Dr. Ben Kligler and William Kaplinidis, licensed acupuncturist, for coming by and telling us all about what it means to have little needles stuck in you. Acupuncture has been our topic. Thanks for joining us on this webcast. I'm David Folk Thomas.