Patient Wendy Besmann, right, is examined by orthopedic therapist Dina Kramer, center, while Elon University student Melanie Vacchiano, left, observes, at Kramer Physical Therapy on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Besmann sees Kramer for needling treatments, which she says help relieve chronic neck and muscle pain. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)KNOXVILLE - Wendy Besmann waited two painful years for her physical therapist to stick a needle in her neck again.
Besmann, who gets physical therapy from Dina Kramer at Kramer's West Knoxville practice, has musculoskeletal pain. She used to have Kramer routinely practice intramuscular manual therapy - more commonly called "dry needling" - on her "trigger points," tightened bands of tissue.
But in June 2014, state District Attorney Robert Cooper Jr. delivered an opinion that dry needling - first practiced in the 1950s - was legally out of the scope of practice for physical therapists in Tennessee.
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