[Acupuncture in the HNO-area]

For ENT specialists it is good to become familiar with the basics of acupuncture, as in our times this method of treatment has been spread and accepted worldwide. Modern pain research has succeeded in scientific exploring and verifying acupuncture effects. Any medical specialist having understood the facts and implications of acupuncture as laid out in this paper, may take the chance to try and put acupuncture into practice in his/her daily work. One of the challenges of doctors nowadays is the increase of functional disorders, of myofascial pain syndromes, of patients' general ill-feeling of health. Particularly in pain management, as regards to the considerable toxic by-effects of long-term prescribed analgetics, there is a need of gentle therapies such as acupuncture, free from side-effects. It is the patients who demand alternative concepts. For ENT-doctors running a busy office, microsystem acupuncture in particular may be recommended. Inserting a couple of needles at the auricle, or injecting a few drops into the oral mucosa is a quick action which in most cases will provide beneficial results.