ARE YOU SECRETLY SCARED OF ACUPUNCTURE NEEDLES?
What you are imagining happening during acupuncture treatments …
What is really happening in you during acupuncture treatments ...
Once in a while some patient nervously asks for alternative treatment modalities such as Cupping, Moxibustion, Gua Sha, or anything else but Acupuncture needles. They shyly admit they are scared of Acupuncture needles.
To some of us, injection syringes and Acupuncture needles seem of no difference. We may feel as if needles are needles no matter how different their shapes or thicknesses are. It could have been from any traumatic experience that we relate to, or it might be simply because of the sharp painful prick that we go through every year from the flu shot.
Perhaps this time we could talk about Acupuncture needles, especially on the thickness difference from syringes, instead of the effectiveness of Acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncture Needles at Sunflower Centre clinic
Gamma-ray Sterilization Labels (Red Dots) on Acupuncture Needle Packages
It is true that with thicker needles you will definitely feel more sensation on insertion and stimulation of a needle during Acupuncture treatments. Yes, the thicker the needle is, the more sensation you would feel. However, the thickness of a needle is not to measure the pain scale with. You may feel almost nothing with the thickest needle on your hip or waist, but you may feel painful even with the thinnest needle at the tip of your finger or toe where lesser volume of muscle and fat lie in your body.
These are Acupuncture needles we use at our clinic of Sunflower Centre (Far left picture). One at the top of the picture is marked as ‘Size:0.25X40.’ It indicates the thickness of the needles in this package is 0.25mm and the length of its body is 40mm. The needles in the smaller package at the bottom of the picture are 0.16mm thick and 15mm long. As you can see, acupuncture needles come in different lengths and thickness such as 15mm, 30mm, 40mm, 50mm, 60mm, 75mm, and so on in length, and 0.16mm, 0.20mm, 0.25mm, 0.30mm, 0.35mm, and so on in thickness. These Acupuncture needles in each package are sterilized with Gamma-ray and are only for a single use. It means whatever is used and/or left over, once the package is opened during your treatment, will be disposed to prevent contamination.
The body style of Acupuncture needles is called ‘filiform’ because they are solid, not hollow. They are fine, short, stainless steel needles that do not inject fluid into the body. On the other hand, in order to carry fluids through, the injection needles are made thicker than filiform needles as seen at the below ‘Neecle Comparison’ picture.
When you look at an Acupuncture needle, there is a thicker part. This is the ‘handle’ that a practitioner holds a needle with, and a thinner part is the ‘body’ that will be inserted through the skin to the muscle. You find it is a lot thinner than you have imagined, don’t you?
Let’s compare the thickness of an Acupuncture needle with injection needles. The circles in the picture below illustrate the cross-sectional areas of each needles in ratio (It means the diameter of each circle is the thickness of each needle) .
From left to right, the first largest circle shows the equivalent thickness of a blood donation needle in 16-17 Gauge. The next one is a butterfly needle of 21-23 Gauge that is used to draw blood for a test, and is almost 1/4 of a blood donation needle in size. An infant needle is approximately 1/4 thinner than a butterfly needle and almost 1/16 thinner than a blood donation needle. The last one is an acupuncture needle of 0.20mm thickness. Obviously, an Acupuncture needle is almost 1/2 of an infant needle in size, and 1/64 of a blood donation needle. Now you can see how thin an acupuncture needle is.
NEEDLE COMPARISON - Acupuncture needle (0.16mm) compared with insulin needle (0.3mm/30G) and standard syringe needle (0.6mm/23G) (human hair knot for scale)
So, what can we find something similar to the thickness of an Acupuncture needle around us? That is a string of human hair :)
The thickness of human hair in general ranges 0.10-0.20mm. In other words, a string of hair is as thick as an Acupuncture needle at clinic. Can we say, then, an Acupuncture treatment feels as if, after a haircut, your skin is a little irritated with cut-hairs poking on your skin? Probably not. However, practitioners do not just stick a needle into the skin. There is a guide tube to make an instant and quick insertion along with techniques to make the needle insertion smooth and less painful.
Now you know how thin an Acupuncture needle is and there is nothing to stop you from trying Acupuncture treatment. Feel free to come visit our Sunflower Centre.
