It is a kind of needling technique by which several short needles are shallowly inserted to a certain area (or points) simultaneously.  It is often used to treat headache, migraine, insomnia, dream-disturbed sleep, deviation of the mouth and eye, eye and nose diseases, dizziness, stomachache, vomiting, hicupping, abdominal pain, impotence, seminal emission, enuresis, dysmenorrhea, frozen shoulder, blockage disease, acute lumbar sprain, numbness of the skin and muscle, psoriasis, alopecia areata and mentally retarded children.

Plum-Blossom Needle

Precautions:

① Before needling needles should be checked carefully.  If they get crooked or damaged the needles should be repaired or replaced before using.

② The area selected for needling must be sterilized.  If bleeding occurs in the area after tapping, blood should be wiped off by sterilized dry cotton balls and the skin should keep clean to prevent infection.

③ The acupuncturist must use even force and tap perpendicularly, avoid oblique insertion and pricking.

④ It is inadvisable to apply it to the skin with wound, ulceration and scar.