What is the best solution to back pain caused by severe scoliosis?

Question

What types of treatment have you had that gives lasting relief from the pain of spinal curvature? Surgery v. other treatments.

Answer 1

consult your doctor.. for curvatures less than 20 exercises may do and the best exercise is swimming others go to a chriopractic practitioner.. >20- 40 some doctors advice to have a brace.. > 40 surgery is adviced

Answer 2

Hi,
This isn't the greatest thing to hear, but pain is a secondary issue with Scoliosis, the primary medical concern is the degree of your curvature, and if it is progressing, and if it's progressing how fast it's progressing. The idea is to stop and correct the curvature if possible, before other organs are compromised. Rule of thumb is that surgery is recommended around 50 degrees. Your surgeon will best advise you if you are a surgical candidate. If you are not being followed by a doctor, I adore mine (Pashman in Los Angeles) or you can find one at www.srs.org

If you are not a surgical candidate, or aren't ready and are looking for pain relief:
pain medication
yoga (if cleared by your doctor) in LA there is a yoga studio that has classes for patients with scoliosis
physical therapy / aqua therapy (if approved by your doctor)
ICE (helps me tremendously if I have a flare up)
Light walking
Pilates (if approved by your doctor)
Chiropractor, accupunture, massage, tens unit (if approved by your doctor.) I don't have to go often, but I am very grateful for the one I see. He always relieves the pain.

Hope something here helps! If you haven't found it already, you may want to check the Scoliosis Mailing List - that group has a lot of information to share.

Best regards!

Answer 3

I have suffered from scoliosis for a couple of years now. About 8 years ago it got so bad that I had to wear a brace for about 20 hours a day, I was in 3rd grade and it was awful. I live in Miami and it's hot enough here without a huge piece of plastic clinging to you. Also, it was really uncomfortable and it was so annoying whenever someone rubbed up against me by mistake and was freaked out by my brace and started bombarding me with questions about it. So the back brace was very limiting and it was a huge blow for my self-esteem. Finally my parents saw how miserable I was and they allowed me to take off my brace for good; which was a terrible idea. My scoliosis got so bad that a few years afterwards I found out that I needed to have surgery. I had the surgery exactly 4 years ago and I don't know why I didn't do it before. Definately better than the brace, in my opinion. Of course it was a really long procedure and the healing process was extremely uncomfortable and I was very limited for the next couple of months. It was extremely painful and frustrating (I even had to learn to walk all over again), but in the long run it was definately a better treatment.

Answer 4

Just type SCOLIOSIS in the bottom of Yahoo Answers just below your question in the column provided and you get more sites with more data. In fact I know about back pain due to L4 & L5 joints in the spine but not Scoliosis but I was able to know more by going to the websites.

Answer 5

If your scoliosis is severe as you have stated, you must have been diagnosed and you've probably already been told that surgery is your best option. Severe scoliosis cannot be corrected by herbal supplements, yoga, pilates, voodoo or denial. Have the surgery.

Answer 6

try a chiropractor ...he helped re-leave my pain for awhile until i had back surgery .have rods down both side of my spine had a 75 dg curve corrected to a 25...do everything quite normal now..he did adjustments and electro therapy

Answer 7

I don't know if you are the physical type, but you should try martial arts. I know this sounds strange but check into it.

Good Luck

Answer 8

there is a therapy commonly used for this purpose. it's called TENS therapy, this therapy uses an electrical current to relax muscles

Answer 9

its never too late to exercise good posture