are you out of your boston brace can you answer a few ?'s for me???

[scoliosisat12]

I get my brace next week and my doctor told me the boston brace will not correct my back, just hold it while i am growing. I have read others that say the degrees did get better. My questions are...

1. Did your curve get better while in the brace?

2. Did the curve stay at the same degree that it was when the brace came off or did the curve slowly go back to where it was before???
thanks,
scoliosisat12

[AngieW]

1. Did your curve get better while in the brace?

My 14yo had her first in-brace x-ray yesterday. She got the brace just one month ago. In-brace her curves were cut in half. They were 21 upper and 26 lower before and were 11 upper and 13 lower in the brace.


2. Did the curve stay at the same degree that it was when the brace came off or did the curve slowly go back to where it was before???

The doctor said that in extremely rare instances, she has seen the brace correction stay, but this was EXTREMELY rare. She had actually seen this occur with a few of her patients though.

Usually the curve settles back to within about 2 degrees of where it started before bracing.

She said that at the 6 month appointment (6 months after starting in the brace), we will be able to tell if the brace is going to help or not. My dd is supposed to keep her brace OFF for 24 hours before the appointment and do an out-of-brace x-ray. She's supposed to wear the brace for 20-23 hours/day otherwise.

I've been very surprised that my dd adjusted to the brace pretty quickly. The first week was difficult, but that was about it. She wears it 20-23 hours/day.

[MATJESNIC]

The hard brace will only hold your curve while you are growing. An orthopedic at Shriner's in Phila told us that in all of his years of being a doctor, he only met about 5 kids who had the great fortune of having a decrease in curves.

[Sahare]

1. Did your curve get better while in the brace?

No, my curves still got worse - but hopefully it slowed it down a bit

2. Did the curve stay at the same degree that it was when the brace came off or did the curve slowly go back to where it was before???

My curves were steady when i ended with my brace - at that point my was also brace was too small, so i coundn't really wear it

Good luck with your brace

[The Slice]

Scoliosisat12, the others have pretty well said it, the brace will NOT correct the curve. The hope is that the person will be diagnosed early enough so that the progression of the curves can be slowed with a brace and prevent the need for surgery. If it's not caught early, it's hoped that the brace will slow down the progression of the curve until surgery can be done and improve the outcome of the surgery. In general, the worse the curve is, the less of a correction that's possible. Your best bet is to follow the directions/guidance of your scoli doc and if you have one, the physical therapist. Remember that wearing the brace is no guarantee that you won't need surgery later, but following directions will very likely improve the chances that you won't need surgery, and if you do need surgery will likely help the amount of correction that is possible by keeping your spine flexible. Hang tough, and be patient.

[beehappy2005]

1. Did your curve get better while in the brace?
i think this has been answered

2. Did the curve stay at the same degree that it was when the brace came off or did the curve slowly go back to where it was before???
mine went back, but i did have chiropractic treatments using the activator method and it's decreased a bit. chiropractics have been the best thing for me. you do need a doctor that's worked with scoliosis patients before. my ortho dr. didn't want me to see a chiro., but the brace had ceased to be effective and they were talking surgery. i went then and it stopped progressing. my new chiropractor is working on decreasing the curves.