How we help
Assessment, ongoing monitoring and co-management of spinal curvature, most often picked up in growing teenagers. Imaging arranged when it is warranted, and straight talk about what chiropractic can and cannot do here.
Often it starts with a school screening, or a parent noticing that one shoulder or hip sits higher than the other. Sometimes it is spotted by chance in a swimsuit. The first job is a proper assessment so you know what you are actually dealing with, rather than what the internet told you at eleven at night.
Most scoliosis is idiopathic, which means no identified cause, and it is usually noticed during the growth spurt of adolescence. Common signs are an uneven shoulder or waist, one shoulder blade sitting more prominently, or a rib hump that appears when bending forward.
The honest position first. Chiropractic care does not straighten a scoliotic spine and it does not correct a curve. Anyone telling you otherwise is overselling. What careful assessment and monitoring can do is establish what you are dealing with, track whether it is changing, help with associated back pain and stiffness, and make sure you reach specialist care at the point where that matters.
That last part is the one that gets missed. In a growing teenager the size of the curve and the amount of growth remaining determine what happens next. Smaller curves are typically monitored. Larger curves in a child who is still growing may warrant bracing, which is managed by specialist services. Larger curves again are a surgical conversation. Getting into that pathway at the right time genuinely changes outcomes, and the window does not come back around.
Assessment here involves a full history, a postural and movement examination, an Adams forward bend test, measurement of any rib hump, and an assessment of remaining growth. Where imaging is warranted, we arrange it so a curve can be measured properly rather than estimated by eye.
Adults with long-standing scoliosis are a different conversation. The curve is generally no longer progressing, and the issue is usually stiffness, uneven load and back pain built up over years. Care there is aimed squarely at comfort and movement, with no claims about changing the curve.
One shoulder or hip sitting higher, or a waistline that looks asymmetrical when your child stands normally.
One shoulder blade standing out more than the other, often most obvious from behind or in a swimsuit.
Ask them to bend forward with arms hanging. One side of the ribcage sitting higher than the other is worth having checked.
No. Care may help with pain, stiffness and movement associated with a curve, but it does not correct the curve itself. We would rather tell you that now than take your money on a different promise.
Get it assessed properly, and reasonably soon. Screenings identify something worth measuring, and the measurement is what determines whether it is monitoring or a specialist referral.
Often yes, because a curve needs measuring rather than eyeballing, and we arrange that. If imaging would not change what we recommend, we will not send you for it.
During the adolescent growth spurt, more often, because that is when curves can change quickly. You will be given a specific schedule rather than a vague come back sometime.
In adolescents, often not, which is why it can go unnoticed. In adults with long-standing curves, back pain and stiffness are more common.
Care can be aimed at comfort, stiffness and movement. The curve itself is generally settled by adulthood, and we will be clear about that distinction.
Assessment, imaging where warranted, and referral if that is what the numbers say. Call (02) 9999 6491.
Related: paediatric chiropractic, back pain, how our chiropractic care works.
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