“Can early scoliosis be cured?”
I was diagnosed with scoliosis. Can early scoliosis be cured?
1 Answer
While, there's no "cure" for scoliosis, per se, treatment involves slowing or halting progression. The goal is to prevent curves from getting up to 40-50 degrees, because those curves have been shown to cause pain later in life.
The first step would be getting in front of an Orthopaedic Surgeon to evaluate you clinically and to review your X-rays. Scoliosis is many times over-called on X-rays, as many individuals are walking around with up to 10 degrees of "spinal asymmetry" (not true scoliosis) and don't even know it. Now, if you have greater curvatures (20-25 degrees or more), bracing may be indicated if you're younger and skeletally immature (<14 in girls, <16 in boys). If you reach that 45-50 degree range, surgery may be indicated. If you are an adult with <45-50 degrees, often we just observe these curvatures because most will not progress much. Interestingly enough, while there's no cure, most cases are not associated with any symptoms.
The first step would be getting in front of an Orthopaedic Surgeon to evaluate you clinically and to review your X-rays. Scoliosis is many times over-called on X-rays, as many individuals are walking around with up to 10 degrees of "spinal asymmetry" (not true scoliosis) and don't even know it. Now, if you have greater curvatures (20-25 degrees or more), bracing may be indicated if you're younger and skeletally immature (<14 in girls, <16 in boys). If you reach that 45-50 degree range, surgery may be indicated. If you are an adult with <45-50 degrees, often we just observe these curvatures because most will not progress much. Interestingly enough, while there's no cure, most cases are not associated with any symptoms.
