Scoliosis: When Surgery Is Already on the Table

By the time a lot of people come to us about scoliosis, they have already been given a plan somewhere else. Usually that plan involves hardware.

This is about what is still worth looking at before you get there.

Rods, and being told you might never walk again

We had one patient with such severe scoliosis that the joints were so degenerative that they were recommending putting rods in their spine, and they told them that they will potentially never walk again.

Through our chiropractic care, spinal decompression, and shockwave, not only were they able to regain complete function of their body, but they actually restored some disc height to the degenerative discs and had a level of correction that now has prevented them from even having the surgery consultation. They do not even visit that medical doctor anymore, and they have gotten their life back to where they are.

And the best part is they have all the tools and exercises and rehab equipment at home to maintain that themselves, so they are not solely dependent on coming into our clinic.

That last sentence is the whole philosophy in one line.

Why scoliosis is a joint problem before it is a curve problem

People think about scoliosis as a shape. We think about it as load.

A curve changes how weight travels down the spine. Some joints take more than they were built for and some take almost none. Over years, the ones taking the load degenerate faster, disc height goes down, and the joints stiffen into the pattern.

The curve gets the attention. The degeneration is what actually takes function away.

That is why the question we ask is not only how big is the curve. It is which joints have stopped moving, what has that cost you, and how much of it is still available to change.

Adult scoliosis is a different conversation

Most of what people read about scoliosis was written about teenagers, where the curve is still changing and the whole question is whether it will progress.

Adults are a different problem. The curve is usually settled. What is still moving is the degeneration, and that is where function actually gets lost. Adults come in with pain, with stiffness, with one side that fatigues faster than the other, with a rib cage that does not rotate the way it used to.

Nobody is trying to make a fifty year old spine straight. We are trying to keep the joints moving, keep the discs from getting flatter, and keep you doing the things you want to do.

What we look at

Imaging, so we can see the structure and the stage of degeneration rather than guessing at it. How the curve behaves when you move, not just how it sits when you stand still. What you have lost functionally, in the things you actually do.

Then we tell you honestly what we think is available. Some of it is structural and some of it is not, and you deserve to know which is which before you commit to anything.

What care can involve

Spinal decompression to create space in joints that have been compressed for years. Specific adjusting to restore motion where segments have locked down, which you can read about on our chiropractic adjustments page. SoftWave therapy for the soft tissue that has been holding the pattern in place.

And physical rehabilitation, which is what makes any of it hold, because a spine that has been curved for twenty years has muscle patterns built around that curve and those have to be retrained.

Why it helps to have it in one place

We have a lot of technologies in the office that other people have, but not everyone has them under one roof the way we do.

That matters more with scoliosis than with almost anything else, because scoliosis is not one problem. It is a joint problem and a disc problem and a soft tissue problem and a strength problem all at once, and every one of them feeds the others. Sending somebody to three buildings for four things is how care falls apart in between appointments.

The point is independence

Scoliosis is not something you fix once and forget. It is something you manage.

Which is exactly why we push equipment and exercises into people's homes. If keeping your function depends on you being in our office every week for the rest of your life, we have not actually given you anything. The goal is that you hold it yourself, and see us because you choose to, not because you have to.

Common questions about scoliosis

Can chiropractic straighten a curve?

The goal is function, not a number on a film. A curve that has been settled for decades is not going to become a straight spine. What can change is how the joints move, how much space the discs have, and what you are able to do without pain, and for most adults that is what they came in for in the first place.

Is it too late if I have had it my whole life?

Late is not the same as too late. What matters is what stage the joints are in, and that is what imaging tells us. We would rather look and tell you honestly than guess from your age.

I have already been told I need surgery. Is it worth coming in?

Yes, if only so you know what you are choosing between. Sometimes surgery is genuinely the right answer, and if that is what we see we will tell you and get you to someone who can help. But a recommendation is not the same as the only option.

If surgery has been raised

Get a real look at the structure first.

Sometimes surgery is genuinely the right answer, and if that is what we see, we will tell you so and get you to someone who can help. But being told hardware is the only option is not the same as it being the only option, and it is worth knowing what is still on the table.

Learn more about scoliosis care at Element Wellness Center, or call our Point Loma office at (619) 523-9355.