Scoliosis is one of the most devastating diagnoses that a parent can receive from a doctor during one of their child’s routine physicals. While it lacks the fatality of a more life-threatening disease like cancer, scoliosis in children creates a world of confusion and uncertainty that can end marriages and ruin lives. Scoliosis is estimated to effect 4.5% of the general population. However, numerous studies about scoliosis have found scoliosis statistics as high as 13% in college-age females.
Most General Practitioners and Pediatricians diligently perform scoliosis screenings on all of their pre-adolescent and teenage patients. However, most don’t truly understand the significance of the diagnosis of scoliosis and the organic health problems it causes. According to one specific study, the average scoliosis patient will suffer a 14 year reduction in their average life expectancy. Their quality of life for scoliosis patients generally rates lower in almost every category, including increased incidence of pain and decreased functional ability as they grow older.
Precious time and opportunity for scoliosis treatment are lost while the patient is observed only during the “watch & wait” period for spinal curvatures less than 25 degrees. This is often when the scoliosis curvature is most functional (flexible) and thus has the best prognosis for reduction and stabilization.
Patients who undergo scoliosis bracing treatment show no significant difference from non-braced patients with scoliosis curvatures measuring less than 30 degrees. In fact, the Children’s Research Center in Dublin, Ireland, has not recommend scoliosis bracing as a treatment for children with scoliosis since 1991 and stated “If bracing does not reduce the proportion of children with AIS who require surgery for cosmetic improvement of their deformity, it cannot be said to provide a meaningful advantage to the patient or community.” Perhaps the most devastating aspect of braces for scoliosis is the well documented life-long psychological effects it has on the patient.
The need for a non-bracing, non-surgical alternative to scoliosis treatment is long over-due. CLEARTM Institute is dedicated to improving the lives and spine of scoliosis patients across the world.
Click here to learn how CLEARTM Institute’s treatment differs from the traditional approach >