The Basics

  • Scoliosis is a sideways curve in the spine
  • There can be many causes but it most commonly occurs in adolescent girls starting between 10 to 12 years of age
  • Scoliosis will usually get worse with growth or age
  • Adults can also have scoliosis – stemming from adolescence or developing later in life
  • If the bend in a spine gets above 50 degrees of curve, surgery may be recommended
  • Patients with scoliosis can develop back pain, asymmetry in their body appearance and postural deformity
  • Early detection and the right treatment can help stop the progression of curves, in many cases achieving curve reduction and improving posture, like the case below.

Check for Scoliosis at home

Use these at-home tests to ID signs of scoliosis.

This will identifyimportant signs and risk factors that may indicate that someone has or may be developing scoliosis.

8 simple questions:

  1. Uneven Shoulders
  2. Shoulder blade sticks out
  3. Ueven Hips
  4. Noticeable spine curve
  5. One-sided Hump or Bump when bend forward
UNEVEN?
BLADES STICK OUT?
HIPS UNEVEN?
SPINE CURVED?
HUMP OR BUMP?

How we approach scoliosis

Dr. Hobbs has been treating scoliosis for almost 30 years, as long as he has been a chiropractor, but he continues to add information and techniques to his approaches so that he achieves the most improvement for each individual. If you or your loved one have scoliosis, there is hope. Most people can achieve reduction in the amount of scoliotic curve and pain. Here is how we approach diagnosis and treatment:

  1. Screen for scoliosis signs…If present,
  2. x-ray to measure the scoliosis degree and source (short leg, pelvic unlevel, vertebra deformity, degeneration)
  3. Determine if conservative (non-surgical) treatment is appropriate. If so,
  4. Assess full spine adn nervous system health, looking for causes that can be conservatively treated.
  5. Determine which scoliosis-specific exercises will be most helpful.
  6. Determine if heel/shoe lift will reduce scoliosis strain or size immediately.
  7. Assess if bracing is needed.
  8. Give treatment options and recommend treatment approach.
  9. Reevaluate as needed, typically every 6 months for growing kids with scoliosis, after the initial reassessments.

Bracing for Scoliosis

Bracing is necessary in some situations.  Dr. Hobbs became a certified scoliosis brace provider, but found that most people got enough results without a brace.  
If you have or need a brace (from another provider), we will work with the brace you get to maximize its results.

Surgery for Scoliosis

SOMETIMES this is needed, but we have never treated that had to progress to surgery after our treatment. We have been able to help enough to prevent that from being needed. This has certainly been helped by having parents get their kids in early enough and take it seriously enough to do what we recommend.
At 50-60 degrees is the point surgeons start considering surgery.

Scoliosis screening pictures adapted from: https://app.scoliscreen.com