Hi. I’m Dr. Steven Battaglino with Battaglino Family Chiropractic. Do I have scoliosis? That’s a question I hear quite a lot. If I do have it, what can I do about it?

Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that develops where the spine is typically supposed to be nice and straight from front to back. Sometimes, for different reasons, we have these curvatures that develop and they can become quite pronounced. They form from different reasons. Sometimes it is a congenital deformity where there’s a malformation of one of the vertebra, meaning it’s typically supposed to look nice and cube-shaped. Sometimes it’ll be a wedge-shaped vertebra in there that doesn’t form quite properly and it predisposes the spine to curve. This is a type that is congenital and it is not really going to straighten out because the body needs that curvature to adapt to the defect. Sometimes it can be from in-utero positioning. The position that you’re in the womb before birth can have an effect on how your spine looks.

If the scoliosis is caused by a childhood trauma early on in life that doesn’t get fixed and causes a curvature there that gets progressively worse as they age, it can be fixed. It depends on degree and it depends on how early we catch it. Prior to puberty, say like 10 or 11 years old thereabouts, these do straighten out. I’ve seen them straighten out completely. So after puberty, they get progressively more and more solidified as a pattern in the spine, and it gets harder to correct and straighten out.

This is Dr. Steven Battaglino with Battaglino Family Chiropractic encouraging you to get a scoliosis screening from a qualified chiropractor in your area.