What about the needles?
Most acupuncture needles are made of surgical grade stainless steel. There are rare instances were the needles are made from other metals, like gold, titanium, silver or chrome-cobalt. But they are quite expensive and do not add any noticeable benefits to the treatment. So, here I will talk of what the vast majority of acupuncturists will use: stainless steel needles.
Basically, a filiform (1) acupuncture needle is just a piece of wire that is sharp on one end. The end that is not sharp has a handle to increase the acupuncturist’s capacity of manipulating the needle. The basic handle is made of the same metal coiled around the needle in a very tight spiral to form the handle. Other handles are made of copper, silver or gold. Several needles have handles that are larger and have a little loop at the top. Occasionally there are needles with a thin pipe pressure fitted to the shaft of the needle. Finally, some handles are molded plastic fused to the needle.
The acupuncture needles I use are, sterilized single use needles that come in little blister like containers. After the needles are used I dispose them in a FDA approved sharps container, like the ones that are used for syringes. And talking about syringes, the shaft of acupuncture needles is not hollow. It does not need to be hollow since it is not designed to deliver or extract any fluids from your system. As mentioned above, it is just a piece of wire!!!
Another big difference with an hypodermic syringe is that the tip of the acupuncture needle does not need to “cut” into the tissue. Acupuncture needles have a rounder tip that “pushes” into the tissue and therefore the “pinch” is less sharp than the one with an hypodermic needle.
The brand that I like the most is ACUFAST (2) needles. It's a brand that have a very high quality needle but also, they are trying to do things a little better than the rest of the brands. All of their packaging is minimal and recyclable to generate the least amount of waste possible. Still they are very strict in terms of quality and safety. Plus, a big percentage of their sales are destined to plant trees. I have no affiliation with the brand but I do like their general mission and commitment with the planet.
In terms of the needling it self, a frequent question is how painful is acupuncture in comparison to an injection. So the first thing that I have to say is that everyone is a little different. And the two manipulations are quite unlike. When you receive an injection usually the main goal is to go slow and penetrate the tissue at the right level to deliver or extract fluid from your body. The vast majority of the pain receptors are on the first layers of the skin. Therefore going slow elicits some pain and discomfort. In comparison, with an acupuncture needle the main goal is to breach the first couple of layers of skin as soon as possible. Once the needle is beyond the sensitive layers the acupuncturist can readjust and/or manipulate the needle with almost no sensation.
Other thing that affects the sensibility is the thickness of the needles. To give you an idea, the thickest gauge (3) of needles I use is about the same as the thinnest of the insulin syringes. And in terms of how deep the needles are inserted, there are several considerations. It will depend on the selected point, the region of the body, the affected tissue and the manipulation technique chosen. That being said, needle insertion varies from 0.3 inch, just below the skin, to 3.5 inches, in big muscles. Commonly, the depth needed it’s around 0.5 to 1.5 inches.
From top to bottom:
15x0.20 mm, Plastic handle
40x0.30 mm, spring handle
75x0.30 mm, spring handle with top loop
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Notes:
(1) Filiform: relating to filament. A filament is a very fine thread or threadlike structure, filamentous.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English. 2022.
(2) Visit ACUFAST© needles web page www.acufastneedles.com
(3) That is the caliber or the thickness of the shaft of the needle.