Understanding the use of acupuncture in dentistry

Acupuncture is a therapy that has been practiced for thousands of years. While it is now practiced worldwide, it has strong cultural ties with China and the Far East. As a traditional therapy, acupuncture offers both a diagnostic and therapeutic system and was first formalised by the Emperor Hung Ti in China around 2 600 BC in the Yellow Emperor's Book of Medicine. Here acupuncture forms part of a broad traditional therapeutic approach, in which the balance between the Yin and the Yang—the positive and negative forces of the universe—forms a core in the understanding of illness.

Acupuncture is defined as ‘the insertion of a solid needle into any part of the human body for disease prevention, therapy or maintenance of health’ (Acupuncture Regulatory Working Group, 2003). It may well be that the present therapeutic systems of acupuncture are the result of centuries of observational medicine, i.e. reproducible effects being identified by practitioners and then re-used to provide a system of treatment for their patients.