It is traditional acupuncture, where he explained that most acupuncturist use a more wide based form of it. He basically said that over the years, and partially due to communist control in China, that various forms of acupuncture came from the traditional form. He said that they treat the problem by using a bunch of needles hoping to get the right nerve path, where traditional goes right to source. Basically he said that the others is like a person shooting a shotgun, where traditional acupuncturists are like snipers. Anyway, the little bandaids are acupuncture seeds or pressure tacks. All I know is it seems to give me relief and I will continue using it.