One of the challenges of acupuncture research is designing appropriate control groups. To address this problem, after surgical third molar extractions 19 patients were randomly assigned to an acupuncture group (n = 11) or a placebo acupuncture group (n = 8). The length of time for reaching moderate pain and pain intensity after oral surgery were recorded by standard patient self-report. The results indicated that subjects treated with acupuncture reported longer pain-free duration times (mean, 181 versus 71 minutes; p < or = 0.046) and experienced less pain intensity than those who received placebo acupuncture. This study provides a model for an acupuncture control that could examine the placebo effect in clinical acupuncture research.