bechet's disease

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

In Canada (except in Ontario I believe) and many other countries the requirements to be a practicing acupuncturist are fairly stringent - usually ~4 years post-graduate work, national certification, etc. So anyone who carries a license is at least reasonably qualified. Canada in some, possibly all, provinces does allow MDs to practice acupuncture and in some others chiropractors and PTs. Unless those practitioners attended a full 4 year Chinese Medicine college we never recommend them. Even for people solely devoted to Chinese Medicine who attended all of the schooling still need many years of focused practice to truly begin to grasp the depth and breadth of the medicine and diagnostic systems.

Particularly with complicated issues, experience matters. For the most part I look for someone who practices acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine (not all do), and tuina (Chinese bodywork techniques - even less do in many parts of the world). For a complicated issue, if possible, I tend to recommend people that have been in practice at least 5-7 years full-time. Generally speaking within 5 years they have seen just about everything and in the volume of patients they see is high enough they can at least give most conditions a proper attempt. Ideally, someone who has been in practice 10+ years would be great to find, but they are less common unless you live in a major metro area.