Best Custom Scoliosis Brace for Effective Treatment

Scoliosis can cause increasing spinal rigidity that makes treatment more complex as it becomes harder to improve the spine’s position and alignment. A custom scoliosis brace can help by pushing the spine into a straighter alignment and maintaining a healthy and upright posture.

The best custom scoliosis brace for effective treatment is the ScoliBrace®; its modern and corrective design has made it a proven effective treatment option for scoliosis, particularly in patients who are still growing.

Bracing for scoliosis can have different treatment goals, depending on patient age and a number of factors.

Scoliosis Bracing

Scoliosis bracing has been around, conceptually, since ancient times, and by the 16th century stiff iron braces were introduced as a treatment option.

Brace-design has changed over the years, moving away from stiff and rigid materials towards modern and innovative customized designs.

Many older traditional scoliosis braces applied intense pressure to the spine, and the squeezing effect could weaken the spine over time.

Patients can be prescribed for part- or full-time brace wear, and in order for a brace to be successful, it has to be worn precisely as prescribed; a significant barrier to traditional scoliosis bracing success was compliance.

Braces have the most corrective potential in children whose spines are still growing. A growing spine is more flexible, so it’s easier to improve its position, and in adults, braces are used more for improving spinal stability and pain relief.

The ScoliBrace® approach is a proven effective non-surgical scoliosis treatment option.

ScoliBrace®

Scoliosis causes an unnatural sideways-bending spinal curvature to develop, and because the spine also rotates, it’s a 3-dimensional condition requiring a treatment plan that addresses the spine’s unnatural curve and twist.

Here at the Scoliosis Center of Utah, we provide customized scoliosis and kyphosis treatment through the power of customized 3-dimensional bracing and rehabilitative exercise.

What’s unique about the ScoliBrace® is it’s fully customized through computer aided design. A patient’s body and spine are scanned using 3-dimensional software programs and digital X-rays to ensure each brace offers a precise fit for specific corrective results.

The more customized a brace is, the more likely it is to be comfortable and corrective.

A brace is created by a team of designers and fitted by trained physicians who make any necessary adjustments; they are focused on patient care and securing the best possible treatment outcome.

The ScoliBrace® pushes the spine into an over corrected position, and because each brace is fully customized to address a patient’s individual curve and body type, treatment plans are more likely to be successful.

The ScoliBrace® can be effective for all types of scoliosis, although childhood scoliosis has more potential for correction than adult cases.

Infantile and Juvenile Scoliosis Bracing

Infantile and juvenile scoliosis can benefit from curve reductions that improve appearance and self esteem.

The main symptom of childhood scoliosis is asymmetrical posture and changes to gait, balance, and coordination can also occur, along with negative psychosocial effects.

Too often, the psychological effects of scoliosis are underrepresented, so it’s important for parents to understand that noticeable changes to appearance and movement can affect a child’s mental health over time.

Being proactive with treatment is important, and there is a lot of potential for nonsurgical treatment success when patients are diagnosed and treated prior to starting their first pubescent growth spurt.

Adolescent Bracing

The most prevalent type of scoliosis overall is adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, often diagnosed at the onset of puberty in females and later in males.

Adolescents are the most at risk for rapid progression that’s triggered by rapid growth spurts; the more potential growth a patient has to go through before reaching skeletal maturity, the more potential progression there is, and how scoliosis is treated during periods of rapid growth is crucial.

Adolescent bracing can help reduce curve size, improve rib cage asymmetry, uneven shoulders and hips, and support healthy posture.

Posture and spinal health are closely connected; improvements to posture will improve spinal health, and improvements to spinal health will improve posture.

Bracing is a key facet of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis treatment; it helps counteract the progressive nature of scoliosis while the constant trigger of growth is occurring.

Adult Scoliosis Bracing

The two main types of scoliosis to affect adults involve cases of pre-existing adolescent scoliosis and degenerative scoliosis that develops later in life.

For adults with scoliosis, correction is more limited due to the spine’s rigidity, but bracing still has a place in adult scoliosis treatment.

The ScoliBrace® can help slow and/or stop scoliosis progression, improve the spine’s stability for pain relief, and support symmetrical posture.

Particularly in cases of degenerative scoliosis caused by degenerative changes in the spine, increasing instability is a concern, and bracing can help with fall prevention by holding the spine and torso in a straighter alignment for improved balance and stability.

In addition, when there is too much instability in the spine, there is often too much movement, known to cause back pain, so even incremental improvements to the spine’s balance and stability can reduce pain for noticeable improvements to quality of life.

Customized Scoliosis Bracing and Exercise Rehabilitation

It’s hard to discuss the potential of the ScoliBrace® approach without discussing ScoliBalance®: a scoliosis-specific exercise rehabilitation program that’s evidence-based and effective.

What makes the modern ScoliBrace® unique is its movement-based design; this addresses some issues associated with traditional scoliosis bracing.

Because the ScoliBrace® can be combined with a scoliosis-specific exercise plan, there is more potential for correction.

Traditional bracing uses spinal immobilization, which is contrary to the spine’s natural movement-based design, so as modern scoliosis treatment expanded to value the place of scoliosis-specific exercise, integrative treatment plans were developed.

ScoliBalance® combines the potential of scoliosis-specific chiropractic care: Chiropractic BioPhysics® (CBP) and scoliosis-specific and Mirror-Image exercise plans that work together to improve the spine’s alignment, balance, and stability, while core-strengthening exercise can help strengthen and balance the spine’s surrounding muscles for more support and improved posture.

While a scoliosis brace is pushing the spine into a better position via spinal coupling, scoliosis-specific rehabilitative exercise is working towards improving the spine’s surrounding muscle strength and balance for more support, and scoliosis-specific chiropractic adjustments has further potential to improve the spine’s structural alignment and position.

Conclusion

Here at the Scoliosis Center of Utah, patients benefit from a modern and integrative approach to nonsurgical scoliosis treatment, and the corrective potential of the ScoliBrace® is at the center of our approach.

The ScoliBrace® combines what clinicians have learned about scoliosis and bracing efficacy over the years, and when corrective bracing is paired with the potential of scoliosis-specific rehabilitative exercise, the scope of conservative scoliosis treatment widens.

A custom scoliosis brace has a lot to offer including curve reductions, postural restoration, pain relief, and more stability for fall prevention.