We here at The American Chiropractor have been looking forward to this issue for some time. The topic of discussion is Scoliosis. If you were to go to any source today on methods of dealing with scoliosis through mainstream medicine, the advice would be very standardized for the treating physician. For example, if you go to the Mayo Clinic’s website right now, something I’m sure the vast majority of patients with scoliosis will do once diagnosed, the advice to the tending physician will be the following: periodic checkups to monitor progression of the curve up to 25 degrees. Once the curve has progressed beyond 25 degrees, consider placing the patient in a brace to prevent progression of the curve and, if the unfortunate circumstance of a 40 degree curve becomes a reality, then a surgical consultation is warranted. These are the recommendations for children diagnosed with the condition until they achieve skeletal maturity. The recommendations will be capped with the "there is no scientific basis" that exercises or chiropractic will reduce curve progression.
Never one to shy away from challenging conventional wisdom, our feature interview this month is with Dr. Dennis Woggon, an expert in spinal biomechanics, as well as the founder of the Chiropractic Leadership, Educational Advancement & Research (CLEAR) Institute. He’s actually been reducing the curves of his patients, and has one peer reviewed study on the topic to prove it. Look for more to come in the future. He’s not the only one in the profession working with patients that have scoliosis though. Dr. Mark Payne offers the history of one Chiropractor and a patient he worked with through the use of some fairly inexpensive devices; and Dr. Marc Lamantia shares some of his experiences with a patient that had an incredibly severe curve, and was treated with the Spine Core, in addition to Vestibular Rehabilitation excercises.
Things are definitely looking positive for the chiropractic profession. It seems that each month a new jewel or gem is cast the way of functional approaches to care. The real question that will be answered when your next patient enters your clinic is, "How polished are you?" Are you searching for words while explaining certain aspects of care? Do you feel confident and on task, with laser like precision while explaining yourself? Find the answers to the questions you seek inside. We’ll keep bringing them to your doorstep so you don’t have to look too hard, so you just keep reading.
Next month, the feature will be nutrition and integrative therapy, something that always works well with Chiropractic methods to achieve wellness.
Until then,
Joseph Busch, D.C.
Managing Director /
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