Signs of Scoliosis: How to Identify Spinal Curvature

There are several signs of scoliosis, and recognizing them early can increase chances of treatment success; there are also scoliosis risk factors including age, gender, and a family history to be aware of. Early detection can mean early intervention, and while there are never treatment guarantees, scoliosis that's diagnosed and treated while mild is simpler to treat.

The early signs of scoliosis in children involve postural changes such as uneven shoulders and hips, and the earliest sign of adult scoliosis is pain because the condition becomes compressive once skeletal maturity has been reached.

How noticeable the effects of scoliosis are depend on a number of factors, including condition severity.

Scoliosis Effects and Condition Severity

There are a number of spinal conditions that cause a loss of its healthy curves, but scoliosis has some characteristics that can make it particularly complex to treat.

Scoliosis doesn't just cause the spine to bend unnaturally to the side, it also causes the spine to rotate unnaturally, making the condition 3-dimensional, and in addition, as a progressive condition, the nature of scoliosis is to become more severe over time.

There are a number of variables that shape a patient's experience of scoliosis, and an important one is condition severity because the more severe a condition is, the more noticeable its effects are going to be.

Condition severity is determined by a measurement known as Cobb angle.

Cobb Angle

A patient's Cobb angle is determined during X-ray and is necessary to diagnose scoliosis.

A minimum Cobb angle of 10 degrees is necessary to be considered a true scoliosis, and the measurements involve drawing lines from the tops and bottoms of the curve's most-tilted vertebrae at its apex, and the resulting angle is expressed in degrees.

The higher the Cobb angle, the more unnaturally tilted the spine's vertebrae are, the more misaligned the spine is, the more severe the condition, and the more overt its effects are going to be.

The milder scoliosis is, the more subtle its effects are going to be, which is why it can be so beneficial to have awareness of the condition's, often subtle, early signs.

Knowing the condition's early signs can lead to early diagnosis, and the condition's main effects can differ largely based on patient age.

Signs of Scoliosis in Children

Scoliosis affects all ages, but the condition is most often diagnosed in children, and as a progressive condition, triggered by growth, childhood scoliosis should always be taken seriously.

Scoliosis introduces a lot of uneven forces to the spine, its surroundings, and the entire body, and the main effect of childhood scoliosis involves postural changes caused by the condition disrupting the body's overall symmetry.

When mild, signs will be subtle, and when severe, signs will be overt.

Early signs of scoliosis in children include:

• Uneven shoulders
• Uneven shoulder blades (one shoulder blade protruding more on one side)
• Uneven hips

As a child grows and progression is triggered, the size of the unnatural spinal curve is increasing, as will the condition's effects.

Signs of scoliosis progressing in children include increasing changes:

• Head appearing uncentered over the torso
• An uneven eye line
• Development of a rib cage arch
• Uneven waist line
• Arms and legs that appear to hang at different lengths

The more severe scoliosis becomes, the more likely it is to cause additional changes in children such as disruptions to balance, coordination, and gait.

Mobility issues become more severe alongside progression as the body's symmetry is further disrupted.

When it comes to adult scoliosis, while they also experience postural changes, the main sign of scoliosis differs.

Signs of Adult Scoliosis

Scoliosis doesn't become a compressive condition until skeletal maturity has been reached and growth has stopped.

As growth has stopped, the progressive trigger of growth has been removed, but adult scoliosis still progresses, particularly once age-related spinal degeneration occurs.

Childhood scoliosis isn't commonly described as painful because the constant lengthening motion of a growing spine can counteract the compressive force of the unnatural spinal curve.

Compression is uneven pressure and is the main cause of condition-related pain; it can cause muscle pain, back pain, leg pain, and nerve pain.

In fact, the main sign of scoliosis in adults that leads to a diagnosis is pain that radiates into the extremities due to nerve compression.

Adults will experience postural changes, such as a prominent lean to one side, but it's pain that brings most adults in to see me for a diagnosis and treatment.

The two main types of scoliosis to affect adults are idiopathic scoliosis and degenerative scoliosis.

Adult Idiopathic and Degenerative Scoliosis

Cases of adult idiopathic scoliosis highlight the importance of early detection because these cases involve adolescent idiopathic scoliosis that wasn't diagnosed or treated during adolescence, progressing with time and maturity into adulthood, when conditions become compressive, painful, and more noticeable.

The reality is had these adults been diagnosed and/or treated during adolescence, their conditions would have been addressed prior to significant progression, and they would have been much simpler to treat.

Degenerative scoliosis affects older adults over the age of 45, and as the cause is natural age-related spinal degeneration, the signs of degenerative scoliosis include a spine that's becoming more unstable and unbalanced over time, and this condition type can be particularly painful.

A sign of degenerative scoliosis in older adults are falls, so it's important that treatment is applied to increase spinal support and stability and prevent future injury.

The Benefits of Early Diagnosis and Intervention

The main benefit of early diagnosis is that it can mean early intervention.

Early diagnosis means diagnosing conditions early in their progressive line, while still mild, and this is beneficial because treating mild scoliosis is simpler than treating moderate scoliosis, severe, and very severe scoliosis.

With progressive conditions like scoliosis, when treatment is started can be a key factor in treatment success; it's more effective to proactively work towards preventing progression and increasing condition effects than it is to attempt to reverse the effects of scoliosis once they're established.

As progression occurs, the spine gets more rigid, making it less responsive to treatment and making it difficult for some patients to perform key therapeutic exercises as part of treatment.

The main benefit of early diagnosis and intervention I want patients to be aware of is that it can mean successfully addressing scoliosis with non-surgical treatment.

While traditional scoliosis treatment funnels patients towards spinal fusion surgery, the reality is that many cases of scoliosis respond well to less-invasive non surgical treatment options, including chiropractic care, physical therapy, corrective bracing, and rehabilitation.

Conservative non surgical scoliosis treatment is offered by the Scoliosis Reduction Center®, where our results speak for themselves.

The benefit of non surgical treatment is that it's non-invasive and has the goal of preserving as much of the spine's natural strength and function as possible, and a common complication of a surgical treatment response is a spine that's not as flexible or strong, making it more vulnerable to injury.

Conclusion

The symptoms of scoliosis will vary based on a number of variables including patient age, condition type (idiopathic, neuromuscular scoliosis, degenerative scoliosis, and congenital scoliosis), curvature location, and condition severity.

Scoliosis is diagnosed through a physical examination, an adam's forward bend test, and X-ray results confirming the spine's rotational component and a minimum Cobb angle measurement of 10 degrees.

If the spine curves and rotates unnaturally, the biomechanics of the entire spine are disrupted, and there are a number of early signs of scoliosis, but awareness is needed because the condition's early signs can be subtle.

In children, the condition's earliest signs are often uneven shoulders and hips, and in adults, the main symptom of scoliosis is pain caused by compression.

When doctors diagnose scoliosis, conditions are further classified to streamline the treatment process and inform the customization of effective treatment plans.

Scoliosis diagnosed as mild can be highly treatable if proactive treatment is applied, but if scoliosis is left untreated, an unnatural curve of the spine can progress unimpeded and cause complications such as breathing problems, chronic pain, and nerve damage.

Severe cases of scoliosis can require surgery, but in many of these cases, had treatment been applied early on, progression into the severe classification could have been avoided, along with a surgical recommendation.

People with scoliosis diagnosed early in the condition's progressive line can benefit from early intervention, and other than school scoliosis screening, the onus of recognizing the condition's early signs fall onto the shoulders of parents, caregivers, and patients themselves.