Complimentary Care - The extensive history of clinical usage and excellent safety record of acupuncture make it a reasonable complementary treatment for most diseases and conditions. Acupuncture has few known contraindications, and is not reported to interfere with other treatments. It may be safely used to complement and enhance other treatments, and reduce adverse effects of other treatments.

Alternative Care - For some conditions, conventional treatments may be contraindicated or deemed undesirable because of unfavorable risk:benefit ratios. Patients' prior medical history and experience may also suggest that they are not likely to respond well to certain conventional therapies. In these cases, acupuncture is a reasonable alternative. Acupuncture may be considered a conservative treatment, not only for those conditions where its efficacy has been proved, but also where the efficacy, safety, or appropriateness or other therapies is in doubt.

Primary Care - Increasingly, acupuncture is being practiced in integrative medical settings in conjunction with conventional therapies. Acupuncture may be used to reduce post-surgical pain and swelling, and increase range-of-motion. Acupuncture lowers the need for analgesics, thus reducing risks of adverse drug effects. The National Institute of Health states: "One of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other accepted medical procedures used for the same conditions."