What are the differences between acupuncture and dry needling?

Biggest: Is that acupuncture involves "needling" "gateway" points in the body to correct energistic imbalances. Dry needling is a form of pain management, that involves needling a trigger and/or tender point, that are not in any way related to the "mapped gateway"/meridian points found on all bodies, but to allow for localized pain relief. Dry needling at times is akin to putting a needle in a muscle knot

Differences: Dry needling inserts needles (with or without injection of local anesthetic) into a trigger point. It is a local treatment which can be quite painful at time. Acupuncture encompasses a large number of techniques some of which are local and many of which work on systems.