Function of all needles size

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

There are theories about this, but they all come down to a general idea of whether you feel the needle does the work or whether the body does the work in response to the needle. If you, as I believe, think the body does the work in response to the needle it hardly matters what size needle you use - so you generally use smaller diameter needles (34, 36, etc.) as they increase patient comfort generally speaking. If you think the needle does the work you might be drawn to thicker needles (30, 32, etc.). Length, again, is a similar idea, although for most people 1" needles are more than adequate, in heavier folks 1.5" or 2", particularly in areas such as the lower back.

Alot also has to do with your own personal preference, whether you free needle or use an insertion tube, what type of needling you do generally, etc. There are no clear answers to most questions like this in Chinese Medicine as there are many different approaches and theories.

Comment by Archived User

There have been a few studies done in China, of questionable value in my opinion, that have attempted to determine whether size and depth have any measurable effects. The short answer is nothing has been conclusively found in either regard. But as an aside, I don’t think that enough quality research has been done one way or the other.

As Chad said, the varying diameters of length and size mostly reflect differences in both a practitioners own take on some fundamentals of theory as well as physical preferences to how the different needles feel both to patients and to themselves as practitioners.