Auricular therapy is one form of acupuncture that stimulates ear acupoints on specific areas of the ear to treat disease or alleviate symptoms. Most auricular therapy includes auricular acupuncture (e.g., acupuncture imbedding and electro-acupunture stimulation) and pellet acupressure. The primary side effect of auricular acupuncture is the piercing sensation that occurs either at the time needles is inserted into the ear surface or when intense electrical stimulation is applied to an ear acupoint. This use of needles necessities that auricular acupuncture be performed by licensed practitioners. In contrast, auricular point acupressure (APA), which uses adhesive patches containing hard, smooth, round objects (e.g., botanical plant seeds or metal/magnetic pellets) on the front and back surface of the ear to stimulate the acupoints, is not only non-invasive, but also can be performed by practitioners with minimal training. Moreover, with APA, patients can be taught to self-manage their symptoms at home. Due to the disadvantages of auricular acupuncture, APA has become increasing popular during the past 20 years in Taiwan and ChinaScholarly peer review is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field, before a paper describing this work is published in a journal. The work may be accepted, considered acceptable with revisions, or rejected. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given (narrowly defined) field, who are qualified and able to perform reasonably impartial review.
Last date updated on September, 2024
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