How X-rays Aid in Scoliosis Treatment | Chiropractor for Scoliosis in Belmar, NJ
Hi everybody, today I’m going to do a series on a condition that we see often in my practice called scoliosis.
Scoliosis is Abnormal Curvature of the Spine
So when you look at what a spine looks like from the back, normally it should line up in a perfectly aligned straight, straight spine, right? When we see a scoliosis a scoliosis is actually when there’s a lateral curve to the spine, so the spine shouldn’t have a curvature from front to back. But when there is we call that a scoliosis. Often scoliosis are diagnosed in like the young teenage years, and can progress throughout a teens adolescent years when there are growing people who have had scoliosis, unfortunately, that’s something that you have to live with for the whole rest of your life. And I see lots of adult patients who have had scoliosis, who now are just living with the effects of it and trying to maintain a healthy spine and alignment the best they possibly can. One of the best ways that we diagnose scoliosis is with X ray.
How we use X-rays to Diagnose Scoliosis
So this is an older patient of mine. She’s probably in her late 50s, early 60s, and she has what we call a double major scoliosis. So this is the top of the spine, imagine this is on top of here, this is the neck and the shoulders and the upper back, and this gets into the lower back and into the hips. So she has a curve going one way and then curves the other way, what we call a double major. So movement, many of my patients who have scoliosis, have them at the top and at the bottom. And we only really know and can measure when we take x rays. So we can surmise, maybe check postures, see that things look a little off with the scapula or maybe the hips, but we can really see it when we take pictures. This particular patient has a 19 degree scoliosis in the thoracic area of respond, and about a 32 degrees scoliosis in the lumbar area. It gets real dangerous over like 30 to 35 degrees. When patients are younger, we talk about bracing and potentially if it’s real severe, maybe even surgery, but most of my scoliosis patients do really well with chiropractic care. Because there’s that abnormal stress on all the joints, the muscles are pulling at different muscle tones, the hips usually shift out of alignment. That puts a lot of stress on the nerves. Remember, nerves are exiting out every one of these levels. So we went we want to keep the least amount of nerve irritation or nerve pressure all coming out of those joints possible. I can’t cure or heal a scoliosis. Sometimes we’re able to lessen the degrees of the curvature, even just the littlest bit. But what’s more most important is that we get proper healthy motion and movement in the spinal joints. alleviate some of the abnormal stress on the muscles, tendons and ligaments and then help take the pressure off the nerves.
So if you think or know that you have scoliosis, you should be under chiropractic care. Come to Kinney Chiropractic so we can assess, take specific digital pictures of your spine and measure exactly the degrees of your scoliosis and then get you under care. All right, I hope that helps. I look forward to seeing you soon.
