2025 Scoliosis Awareness Month Kickoff

In this episode, Dr. Mandy kicks off the 2025 Scoliosis Awareness Month by sharing some early detection tips & tricks for parents, along with summertime things to consider. Watch to learn more and be sure to check out the links below for more information!

*****Resource Links You Need:

• Free Online Screening Tool: https://app.scoliscreen.com/
• Find out more about ScoliBalance® at https://scolicare.com/patients-scolibalance.
• Find out more about ScoliBrace® at https://scolibrace.com.

 *****Transcript*****

 Welcome back everybody. We are talking about Scoliosis Awareness Month today. So the month of June is Scoliosis Awareness and not very many people pay attention to it. But it's something that's really important to us because there's really just not a whole lot of awareness surrounding scoliosis, kyphosis, um, different spinal diagnosis, especially in our elementary schools and middle schools.

You know, really where we need those places to be looking for that. Um, if you remember, they used to do school checks all of the time, at least back when I was in school, they used to do those checks. And a lot of schools, I should say, most schools are not doing those like they used to. Um, they're relying really heavily on sports physicals and they're also relying really heavily on our, um, pediatricians well checks to be able to catch scoliosis.

And I find that oftentimes those can really be easily missed, especially if. We're in a hurry or we're not really sure what to look for, or even just depending on the provider that you're seeing. Um, so today I really wanna talk to families about what can you do to ensure that you are paying attention, um, and that you are watching for things that you need to look for at home.

Then obviously what are you looking for in your providers as well? Because as parents we can do all the things. We see our kids every single day. It's super easy to miss some of these things. You know, we're not, you know, most of us are not medical professionals that know what to look for, uh, for scoliosis.

And so even though it's not necessarily our job to make sure that we're figuring this out for our kids, there are some things that I can, uh, talk to you about today that's really going to be helpful. So one of the biggest things is, is that, especially in North Dakota, right, it's freezing in the wintertime.

So if your kids are like my kids, they are bundled up in hoodies and you don't really see them walking around very much. Um, my teenagers hang out in their bedrooms a lot, so if I see them, they might be passing through the kitchen or hanging out on the couch and you know, it's not something that I notice every single day.

In the summertime, it's a great opportunity to kind of. Work with your kids a little bit because it's summertime, they're in tank tops, they're in swimsuits. It's a little bit nicer. They're out and about and a little bit more active because the weather is better. Um, and so this is honestly one of the times that, uh, I see parents say like, gosh, like I didn't notice this all winter, but you know, they put on their bathing suit and we went to the lake and all of a sudden I noticed this thing going on in their back.

Um, so some of the things that you wanna look for. If you are just taking a peek at your kid, when they're standing in the kitchen making their snack, if you notice that their shoulders are unlevel, so one shoulder to the next, if one of 'em has a big drop or if one is rolling forward, that would be an indication that you probably need to look into that a little bit further.

Um, the other thing that you look at is if you're constantly telling them, I mean, sometimes we're telling our kids to sit up straight, right? We're like, stop slouching, sit up straight. If they have a really difficult time, if they just cannot sit up straight or if their head is too far forward from their body.

And if you tell 'em, you know, to like stand up straight, stand up straight, if that's something that's happening, it's highly likely that there's something else going on and that you just wanna make sure that a provider's able to look at that for you. Um, so if you're noticing things like that, sometimes the kids will tell me that like their shirt top will, um.

Slide off one of their shoulders or their bra strap will slide off one of their shoulders, or, um, their hips will be a little bit uneven. I have a lot of people, uh, that have said they've been having like a dress, um, altered for a pageant or some sort of thing, or a prom dress. The alterations were uneven and they noticed a big shift in their hips, and it was actually the person altering their gown that noticed their scoliosis because their alterations were different from side to side.

Um, so if your clothes are wearing differently or something is uneven in through your hips, one of the hardest curves to identify is a low back curve, because sometimes the shoulders are level and you don't notice it, but their hips will be uneven or you'll see a big curve in their low back. And like any other kid, if you've got a 12-year-old or an 11-year-old.

It's not likely that you're looking at their low back without a, a shirt on or some sort of clothing on unless it's summertime and you're at the lake. So, uh, those are some things to kind of think about. There's an online screening tool that we're going to link to this podcast where you can go to the site and you click on it.

And you answer some questions. And as you get through those questions, it's going to guide you at, if you're at moderate risk or if you're at high risk, and whether or not you need to get your child checked, um, by a, a medical professional. And so we'll link that there. You can go on there, check it out. The other piece of this is, is that if you have a family history of scoliosis, it's highly likely that.

You may experience, um, some type of scoliosis issue, um, with. Some of your children Now, it's not a hundred percent right. It's just one of those things that indicates to us like the risk factors are if mom, grandma, aunts, cousins, you know, every, if everybody has had scoliosis or if you've had multiple people in your family have scoliosis surgery, it is extremely important that you have your child.

Checked by a professional that knows how to screen for scoliosis at an early age. Um, so between the ages of 10 to 14 is when scoliosis pops up. When it's the most progressive is typically onset of puberty. In through that first year, that 12 to 18 months, um, that's when you have the most progression. And so you really wanna be checking these kids, especially if you have a longstanding history in your family, um, even at age nine, you know, making sure you get these baseline evaluations.

Um, and then the other piece of that is, is that making sure that at some point if you see a professional, whether it's uh, nurse practitioner or a pa or an MD, or. You know, myself or anybody, if there's any concern of scoliosis, it really does need to be evaluated with an x-ray. So having that conversation, I've had some people that have seen providers that maybe don't have as much, um, experience with scoliosis and they'll take a look, uh, posturally like from a physical exam, and, uh, they'll say, yeah, there's a little bit of a curve there.

Uh, we'll check back in later. The problem is, is that what's actually going on on an x-ray and what can be going on, posturally can be. Different can be slightly different. So the presentation that you see on the outside isn't always a presentation that you would expect on the inside. And so X-ray is really the only and best way to evaluate spinal conditions to make sure that you're not missing something or that, um, there's not something that needs to be addressed early on.

So part of the awareness is like sharing some information with the community and with you as parents, um, just so that you kind of know. What you might need to look for and just to be an advocate for either yourself or your child, um, in any of those situations. And if you get that, if you get that intuitive feeling that maybe something's not being addressed the way that it should be, get another opinion.

Um, we do discovery calls all the time. It's a 10 to 15 minute call. We go through a case, we look at some x-rays and we just. Tell you if we feel like it needs further evaluation, we ask you some very specific questions, um, questions that, you know, we've been able to change over the years. You know, we've been doing this work for over a decade now.

Um, and I will definitely say that the more you do this work just clinically that experience, the cases that you see, um, we're able to ask better questions so that we know specifically what we might need to look at in your case or your child's case. Um, so that's really important. And for that matter too, it is just knowing also like when is the appropriate intervention because you might not need the same, well, I should say, you won't need the same thing at different times in your journey.

Right. Um, a child who is a. 10 years old with a really high curve is going to need something different at that time than say somebody who's 19 years old and um, has a lower curve. There's going to be a difference in our recommendations and so it's really important to know. Like what's appropriate at that time so that you get the right care.

Um, so that we don't miss an opportunity really is, is the key. Um, and you always have, you always have the right to choose, you know, we make recommendations based off of the knowledge that we have, the research that's been done, the clinical care that we are a part of and, and the best practices, um, the evidence-based guidelines and practices that we have been able to use.

Like those are the recommendations we. Give, um, but you are always able to choose. So just because we recommend something doesn't mean you have to do that thing. And we really do encourage, if you're not quite sure what you're wanting to do with that, it's good to get information and to think about that.

Um, so you don't have to make a, like a crisis based rash decision right away. We want to identify scoliosis early. We want to, um. Find it when it's small. We want to be able to give you options so that you have time to choose. The last thing that we wanna do is, you know, have a kid in our office with a misdiagnosis that's in a surgical range that's, you know, a really extreme case and now we have to make decisions more quickly and our options are more limited.

So the earlier we detect a scoliosis, the more options you have. The better the outcomes are and, and the more time that we have to really be able to make, uh, good, solid decisions and to have everybody really comfortable with those and to be able to change course if we need to. So some of these things are, are a big reason why we're reaching out and we want to connect, uh, with you as families, as part of our community.

And then as providers, um, we did an episode quite a while back where it was solely for providers of what do you look for? Um. So you can go back to that. A lot of those things, they are still, they're still true. They're still things that, um, you can look for on exam that you should be aware of. Um, but as a provider, if scoliosis isn't something that you work with.

Regularly. And I would say, you know, before I did this work, that was me. I didn't regularly work with scoliosis. I knew some about it. I knew what we were taught and I knew the few cases that I had in throughout my office. Um, but there really is a very specific set of, um, care guidelines when you're dealing with scoliosis.

And if you are not, um, familiar with those, or not comfortable with those, or if it's just not something that you work with a lot. I really do encourage you to, you know, one, you can reach out because we're able to, uh, help facilitate some of those conversations. Um, so if you're like, gosh, I don't know what to do with this case, uh, we can give you some guidelines of like, Hey, this is, you know, this is what the guidelines say, this is really what you should recommend.

Here are some options that we have available to help coordinate that care. Um, but also just to be able to be a resource to you because I know. Previously, if cases are coming into my office and they're complex cases that you're not used to working with that have a lot of intricacies with care and maybe multiple different care providers involved, um, that can take up a lot of, uh, a lot of time in trying to figure out, you know, what's the right path for this.

And then maybe not being completely sure that you know exactly what needs to happen. And so this is where we can be a resource of just saying like, Hey, this is where. This is where this patient falls, this is where the recommendations would be, and giving you confidence in your recommendations. So, um, for example, say you're chiropractor and you're adjusting somebody and you look at their x-rays and you're not sure exactly what you need to do with that.

Um, looking at that, uh, x-ray, we can see, okay, this patient falls within these parameters. This is what's typically recommended based on, you know, other information like a, an exam and, and things like that. And so based off of this, um, you should do X, Y, Z, um, and then you can relay that information to the patient, focus on your chiropractic care, but also making sure that your patient gets the care they need for.

Whatever they might have going on. Um, and then you can coordinate that together. So it's been a huge resource, I think, for our community to be able to have that because it takes a layer of pressure off of providers that, you know, don't work with this all of the time and being more confident that you're giving the right recommendations.

Because even, I know when I first started doing some of this, there were some cases that walked in my door that I'm like, okay, pretty positive that this is where we need to go. But there are some cases that aren't always just black and white. And so I think that that's where the beauty is in that collaboration between families and providers and really just getting the information to people so that you can make really good sound decisions and feel confident in those decisions.

You know, we don't want somebody to look back, or at least, I don't want somebody to look back in four or five years and say, oh my gosh, I wish I would have known. X, Y, or Z, you know, five years ago when we were doing this, and I've unfortunately had that scenario where families have come into my office and I was actually doing that work at that time, and they've walked into my office and they said, gosh, I wish I would've known about you three years ago.

Um, and so that is really one of the pushes that. Has encouraged me to do some of these things, to be able to reach, um, families and to be able to reach providers and just get the information out there and then, you know, you can do with it what you wish, but at least it's there and you have it as a resource.

Um, and I hope that it's helpful. And as we go into this month of scoliosis awareness, we'll be dropping, uh, a new podcast every week. We're gonna cover some different topics. Um, I hope today was helpful. If you have questions, reach out to us. We're gonna put some links, um, below on this podcast, so you've got some resources there, but you can always find additional resources on our website and we look forward to you connecting with you next week as we go into our next topics.

Thanks for spending time with me today. If you could leave a review before you go, that would help us reach more people that need this message. To learn more about the services and resources that we have available, visit us at www.behindthebrace.com.

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