“Can a chiropractor fix scoliosis?” It’s a standard refrain from potential patients and skeptics alike. More often than not, we hear this question from people that have had a nasty experience with a chiropractor (or two) in the past. Maybe they were promised something that wasn’t delivered. or even their chiropractor was vague in what they were actually promising from the outset.
We absolutely believe that a chiropractor can assist you in drastically improving your quality of life. But answering the question, “Can a chiropractor fix scoliosis?” requires a touch of a deeper dive.
It’s important to know from the outset that scoliosis is completely treatable. But it isn’t technically “curable.” Scoliosis is usually compared to diabetes since it’s a condition that needs ongoing care. It’s important to reframe your thinking from the short term to the future here. This is often getting to be an ongoing battle that you’ll likely be waging for the remainder of your life.
That said, if you discover the proper approach to managing your scoliosis, you’ll live an exquisite life with few limitations. As long as you stay dedicated to the plan you develop together with your doctor, you’ll drastically improve the standard of your life without bracing or surgery.
Approaches that promise a fast fix for scoliosis unfortunately rarely deliver meaningful results. It’s easy to vow a fast fix, but it’s tons harder to truly deliver it. Many of those approaches ultimately have little impact on quality of life and, only too often, actually substantially worsen a patient’s situation. Once you’ve reframed your thinking around what it means to be “fixed” when it involves treating scoliosis, it’s time to seek out the proper chiropractor for you.
Scoliosis may be a unique condition that needs a singular approach. Unfortunately, many chiropractors attempt to treat scoliosis as they might the other spinal conditions. But with scoliosis, that simply won’t work.
We often say “you can’t be a far better clinician than you’re a diagnostician.” What we mean is you can’t treat something you can’t effectively diagnose. Most chiropractors simply aren’t trained or equipped to effectively diagnose issues associated with scoliosis. As a result, it’s easy to miss the underlying root causes also as related issues like instability of the encompassing ligaments.
Effective diagnosis may be a central piece of developing a treatment plan that’s right for you and certain to deliver results. From there, you’ll enter treatment.
Traditionally, chiropractors search for “stuck” joints within the spine and check out to form them “unstuck.” But with scoliosis, joint mobility isn’t the main issue. It’s the situation of the joints that’s off. Treating scoliosis with a standard chiropractic approach can actually put more pressure on the spinal joints, aggravate the encompassing nerves and cause scoliosis to worsen over time.
The joints of the spine got to be repositioned first and foremost. except for any future benefit to occur, there’s an entire lot more that must accompany this repositioning. Your muscles have got to be relaxed. Your brain must be retrained to use the muscles and spinal joints differently than it’s become familiar with. so as for scoliosis to be effectively treated, all of those things got to be happening together. In practice, this usually means scoliosis massages, stretches, and exercises alongside scoliosis-specific adjustments.
We sometimes get asked what it’s CLEAR doctors search for when assessing a replacement patient with scoliosis. Your brain must be retrained to use the muscles and spinal joints differently than it’s become familiar with. It’s an excellent question, and therefore the answer depends on each patient’s unique case. But here are a couple of general indicators we always search for.
We look for a way to rigid the spine that we’re starting. This will give us a sign of what proportion of upfront work must happen before we effectively start repositioning the spine.
But we specialize in quite just discs, muscles, and bones. We also think about the nerves in your spine. More specifically, we glance at what proportion of tension is being placed on these nerves. Some theories of scoliosis believe it develops to alleviate tension being placed on the nerves of the spine. While the jury remains out on nerve tension as a root explanation for scoliosis, we believe it’s a serious player not only within the shape of the spine but also your quality of life. By alleviating nerve tension, we will assist you to feel better more quickly as we move forward with treating the form of your spine.
Sensorimotor integration (or “SMI”) may be a fancy name for a way well your brain is in a position to speak together with your body. Miscommunication between the brain and body can cause all kinds of issues, including scoliosis. Fixing scoliosis requires us to retrain the brain to use the body, especially the spine, in ways, it’s grown unaccustomed to.
This assessment often involved a series of balance-related tests to ascertain how well things are aligned from the outset. We repeat these tests throughout a typical treatment to chart improvement. this is often a serious aspect of treatment that a lot of traditional chiropractors overlook when it involves effectively treating a patient with scoliosis.
This is perhaps the best factor we glance at when determining what proportion of progress, we’ll be ready to make with a replacement patient that has scoliosis. Your level of commitment is going to be one of the foremost important factors in what proportional improvement you’ll see in your quality of life.
We think of it like visiting the dentist (but hopefully without the sense of dread). Most of the “hard work” when it involves oral hygiene doesn’t happen at the dentist’s office. It happened in your house. an equivalent is true when treating your scoliosis. If you stay dedicated to your treatment plan, you’re much more likely to reap the advantages of chiropractic procedures.
So can a chiropractor fix scoliosis? As we mentioned above, the primary thing to seem for maybe a chiropractor who will effectively diagnose your scoliosis. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor questions, not only from the outset but throughout your treatment. the higher you understand your diagnosis and treatment plan, the higher your chances of substantially improving your quality of life.
We’ve prepared a bunch of questions you’ll ask your doctor that ought to be a pleasant start line. But if any others come up, definitely don’t hesitate to feature them on your list.
If you’re trying to find a CLEAR-certified chiropractor in your area, you’ll do a fast search supporting your location. Finally, if you’ve got any questions for us about chiropractic care and scoliosis, please allow us know in the comments below. We’d be happy to help.
