Scoliosis bracing for adults doesn’t stop you from living. In fact, if you’re an adult that has to wear a brace, having a brace should help your life, not detract from it.
Adult Scoliosis Bracing
Why do adults need scoliosis bracing? Isn’t scoliosis a disease that affects kids?
Adults need scoliosis bracing particularly if they have late onset scoliosis. What’s that? Well, according to this definition from the blog section of the New York Times: “Although scoliosis is generally thought of as a problem of adolescents, who often require bracing or surgery to correct the curvature, the condition is actually far more prevalent in older adults. In a study by orthopedists at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn of 75 healthy volunteers older than age 60, fully 68 percent had spinal deformities that met the definition of scoliosis: a curvature deviating from the vertical by more than 10 degrees.
Previous studies had reported a prevalence of scoliosis in older adults of up to 32 percent. These reviews may have included adults who were younger than those in the Brooklyn study, whose average age was 70.5 and who had no pain or impairment related to their spinal condition.
Whichever is the real rate, the prevalence of scoliosis in adults is high and expected to increase as the population ages. The most common underlying cause of spinal deformities arising in midlife or later is the degeneration of the discs between vertebrae and sometimes of the vertebrae themselves.
Unlike scoliosis in youth, which afflicts many more girls than boys, adult-onset scoliosis affects men and women in roughly equal proportions. Some had scoliosis as children; it had stabilized, only to progress again gradually as advancing age took its toll on the spine. But the vast majority of adults with scoliosis had normal spines in their youth.
A misshapen body is the least serious consequence of scoliosis. It can result in disabling pain in the buttocks, back or legs, and neuropathy, a disruption of feeling and function when a spinal nerve is compressed between vertebrae. Neuropathy must be treated without delay to prevent nerve death and a permanent loss of function.” [READ MORE]
Scoliosis Treatment and Diagnosis
So remember, don’t ever self-diagnose. Get into a doctor to see if you have scoliosis. And if you do, make sure he or she goes over your treatment options, whether they’re recommending observation, surgery, or scoliosis bracing.
Pivonka Family Chiropractic
1355 S Higley Rd #102
Gilbert, AZ 85296
(480) 892-0022
Scoliosis Bracing for Adults
