Is Scoliosis Painful and What’s the Best Pain Management?

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There are multiple different types of scoliosis that a person can have. There are congenital varieties where an individual is born with a problem that leads to scoliosis. Those types are typically not painful but can cause a significant scoliosis problem and needs to be addressed an early age.

When a person has adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, it is fairly common and it is unclear as to why it occurs. People used to think that adolescents with this type of scoliosis do not have pain and if they did then it could mean something worse such as a tumor. Studies that have looked at the incidence of pain in adolescent idiopathi scoliosis have actually shown that up to 25% of those individuals can deal with some pain as a result of the scoliosis. It does not necessarily indicate something worse than the scoliosis itself. Pain management treatment with physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, and potentially interventional pain management Jacksonville can assist with pain reduction (it won’t change the progression of scoliosis though).

The people who have the worst pain with scoliosis are those suffering from adult degenerative scoliosis. This may be a result of significant arthritis and degeneration starting in adulthood, or it may be an exacerbation of the residual from adolescent idiopathic scoliosis when a person moves through the adult years. Studies have shown that if a person has a scoliosis curve greater than 40° moving into adulthood then it will typically get worse about 1 to 2° per year. After a few decades this can be a fairly impressive amount and the patient may have significant pain associated, necessitating treatment at one of the pain clinics in Orlando .

Adult degenerative scoliosis comes from an asymmetric arthritis problem in the thoracic and lumbar spine. People get arthritis in the facets and degeneration of the intervertebral disc as they age, and it is unfortunately not always a symmetric problem. Some joints deteriorate much more rapidly on one side of the spine than the other and it can lead to a curvature. Individuals may end up with impingement problems of the rib cage, or may end up leaning forward dramatically due to a problem called kyphosis.

Usually what patients experience with significant degenerative scoliosis is a combination of mid and low back pain along with pain in the buttocks, hips, thighs and legs called spinal stenosis pain.

If an individual has asymmetric degenerative scoliosis, the concave side of the curve often has nerves getting pinched as the bones move closer together.

Because of this, the problem gets compounded as biomechanically at a certain point where things  go downhill pretty rapidly. The best treatments for degenerative scoliosis are nonoperative and include such things as medication management, interventional pain management Miami treatments such as epidural injections for spinal stenosis, facet injections, radiofrequency ablation, along with physical therapy and chiropractic treatment to straighten up the muscles around the spine for pain relief.

If you’re suffering from significant arthritis and degenerative scoliosis, pain management can help you avoid surgery and get back to living a more functional life. A fusion surgery can be extremely successful, but the risks of complications are over 70% and may be significant.

The Florida Pain Network connects those in pain with pain relievers throughout the state. This includes pain management doctors in Florida,  pain clinics, chiropractors, and physical therapy clinics. The website has geographically targeted results which displays those clinics closest to your location, or simply call 877-877-8556 today.

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