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Physiotherapy for Scoliosis?


swanprincess

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(Hope the Mods don't mind me posting this here seeing as it's not directly dance related but am interested to hear other dancers' opinions!)

 

I was just wondering if any DC have had physiotherapy to straighten out a scoliosis, and if so, what were the long-term effects?

I went to a physio yesterday regarding a foot injury; she said that it could possibly be caused by my (albeit very minor) scoliosis- but that she could easily straighten my spine and realign my pelvis. I was quite skeptical because NHS doctors told me that physio wouldn't work and that the spine would, over time, go back to a scoliosis. However, the physio did some (very painful!) work on my pelvis, which made a noticeable difference already, and she said that within 2-3 more sessions she should be able to get rid of the scoliosis. I was just wondering if anyone else had tried physio for scoliosis- what are the long-term effects? Is my spine likely to stay straight once it has been corrected?

 

Thank you :) x

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Hi. There isn't an easy answer to the question as it depends what initially caused the scoliosis. If it's due to muscle imbalances around the pelvis or spine then that could be corrected by physiotherapy, joints mobilised into different positions which will stretch out some tissues (hence the soreness) but then this will require strengthening to maintain. I doubt very much that it can just be mobilised into a position and expected to stay there - it is exactly for this reason that people have to keep going back to chiropractors (manipulations etc feel great and are a short term fix but then the patients normal movement patterns cause the situation to revert back after a few weeks if not days). 

 

If, however, the scoliosis is caused by differences in bony anatomy, for example a leg length difference or a vertebral growth/development issue, then I am not sure what the treatment options are other than orthopaedic.

 

If it is not so much a pure spinal scoliosis, and more of a hip/leg alignment thing that is due to muscles then it's probably fix-able with a good physio but some muscle/gait retraining or at least some exercises to maintain the correct alignment would be expected (in my opinion).

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  • 1 month later...

Hi. There isn't an easy answer to the question as it depends what initially caused the scoliosis. If it's due to muscle imbalances around the pelvis or spine then that could be corrected by physiotherapy, joints mobilised into different positions which will stretch out some tissues (hence the soreness) but then this will require strengthening to maintain. I doubt very much that it can just be mobilised into a position and expected to stay there - it is exactly for this reason that people have to keep going back to chiropractors (manipulations etc feel great and are a short term fix but then the patients normal movement patterns cause the situation to revert back after a few weeks if not days). 

 

If, however, the scoliosis is caused by differences in bony anatomy, for example a leg length difference or a vertebral growth/development issue, then I am not sure what the treatment options are other than orthopaedic.

 

If it is not so much a pure spinal scoliosis, and more of a hip/leg alignment thing that is due to muscles then it's probably fix-able with a good physio but some muscle/gait retraining or at least some exercises to maintain the correct alignment would be expected (in my opinion).

My scoliosis is caused by having one leg longer than the other, and no amount of manipulation by a physio or osteopath can fix that! ;) However I've found that visiting the osteopath regularly sorts out other imbalances caused by it. They do come back, but it definitely helps in the short term. 

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