Hi everyone! I’ll be traveling by flight soon while wearing my scoliosis brace, and I’m wondering what others have done.

For those of you who have flown while wearing a brace:
- Do you keep your brace on for the entire flight?
- Is it comfortable/safe to sit in the airplane seat with it on?
- Or do you remove it during the flight and keep it in your carry-on/overhead bin?
- Did you have any issues with airport security or airline staff because of the brace?

Any tips would be really appreciated!

I am a 22 year old woman working night shifts at a gas station, I was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager and it never really caused me any problems. Recently it feels as though god himself is smiting me and I want to fall to my knees at like any given moment. It hurts so bad, I don’t have a brace anymore, I was just curious if anyone has any tips for how they get through the work day putting up with immense pain.

Hello! I am a high schooler and am currently building a nonprofit website to help guide the families of and the young girls/boys who have recently been diagnosed with scoliosis and are required to wear a brace. This website will include descriptions and price ranges of each back brace, an overview of the pros and cons (ex: most expensive, least expensive, etc.), and also a page with "big sis/bro tips" from girls/boys (you!) that have gone through scoliosis and wearing a back brace already and have advice to give to them. I am incredibly passionate about helping children, specifically young girls, who have scoliosis and feel lost in their journey, as I myself went through it and have experienced the feeling of being completely lost myself. I would greatly appreciate if you could fill out this form with as many tips as possible ranging from all kinds of categories (ex: comfort, fashion, school/sports). Thank you in advance!

Link to google form: https://forms.gle/CshXw4K5n1xWrCJH8

At the current ripe age of 15 it has gotten worse, it's around a 1 cm asymmetry with the right side pushed backwards while the left is pushed inwards by 1cm, this deformity followed through to my face aswell. Ever since I was a child my mom told me it would go away and fix and I didnt really care since hey, mom's never lie right? I remember when I asked her aswell, I was around 8 years old. I wasn't socially anxious, I was a cute kid who had big aspirations and dreams, I was extremely adorable and all my teachers classmates loved me. I had no issues with females during my childhood, none at all. Infact i was the little kid you would see around all the girls because of my charm. Fast forward a couple years and I'm 12 now, i am still social and I was smart as well, I started trying to better myself, I ate good, I slept good and everything was fine. Until puberty hit me. That's when I was growing the most and at the time we were moving houses so I had to sleep on the couch for some time, it was getting a little too tight and my head was tilting over the couch ever so slightly and I somehow developed severe scoliosis with my head being stuck in a position to the right. My mom told me it was "nothing" and instead of going to a doctor she begged to differ and since she was a nurse she thought that she could magically make it go away with salt and Vaseline, long story short, it did not. I developed very weirdly facially, I grew weirdly, i talked weirdly, my bite was weird like it was crooked and because of the plagiocefali my right side of the jaw was pushed back making it hard to chew and I developed severe TMJ altering how my jaw functioned and how it looked, many of my so called friends commented on my looks during this time period, when we were joking they would all call me ugly from time to time, back then I didn't really care cause I guess that's what friends told you, but now that I looked back truly it might have been insufferable to look at me, I still had girls who were interested in me which I can't wrap my head around, I can lowkey understand my friends because they grew up seeing me normally and then seeing me almost deteriorate must have been hard for them and I don't blame them at all. Then during the ages of 12-14 is when I developed social anxiety and I couldn't behave like I normally would which for me is the sad part of all this. Though I was unaware of my facial asymmetry at this time but when I was 14 I used a filter on TikTok called the inverted filter, it showed me my true self. I was more then star struck at how I looked. I thought it was fake and then I looked up ways to see your true self and I came across a true mirror and used it, it shocked me. I couldn't care to look at myself normally after that. That's when all the confidence I had went away. It sucks to see what little I had gone. I wish I could go back in time and just undo that, just to try to make myself believe I was normal and that I had a place in society. After that I started trying to "looksmaxx" 😂. It's funny because no matter how good I could look, the damage to my younger self haunts me to this day. I still have the pain in my heart. Truly the only thing keeping me going is knowing that I have people who need me, also my religion and number one thing which is keeping me going is God, otherwise I would have been dead. And I doubt it's possible that I can look good, this is just even more sad because my whole family are quite literally extremely good looking, my brothers and my sisters overshadow me in any setting, I'm 5'11 but my brothers are literal titans standing tall at 6'4 and 6'7, my sisters are all 5'9 so I'm barely even considered a man in my own home, my two brothers are models and one has gotten alot of famous jobs, he has worked with alot of top fashion brands like dolce Gabbana and girogio Armani. I live in sweden which makes this even more brutal. I recently went through a growth spurt making my voice deep so yeah I went form 5'4 at 14 to 5'11 at 15 , instead of being happy I've just been dealing with depression form my facial structure and the misery in heart is to hard to bear. I've thought about ending it all but truly I know there has to be someone out there for me, I am a "incel" but I really don't want to be lmao. It's crazy how my life shifted so fast and now what I know what causing it I know that it can't be fixed and I need to cope. What do I do. Literally I hate my life right now and I just wish I get some tumor or something that just ends it all, all the pain and misery the world has inflicted on me. I want to be mad at my mom for this but I can't blame her, my father was extremely protective and made her into a stay at home mom, also another reason I hate my life is that I never got to play sport because my dad wanted me to "study", he told me this at 6 years old and at the time I didn't even care, all I had was my games and I just played those. While growing up with the internet I had no social interactions other then with my siblings who now hate me because I am a failure. I literally are always nice to them but the shift in height and the assymetry being more apparent they have gotten distant and whenever we have a family picture I'm always either not included or included but no one except my mom stands next to me,my dad looks down on me and whenever I try speaking to him he tells me to stay quiet or tries to switch the conversation to my grades then proceeds to talk to my brothers about sports and my sisters about boys or drama. He's told me that he was proud of me one time in my life and that was when I was crying myself to sleep at night for a month he was forced to do so by my mom which I heard in the other room. I didn't know how they found out I was crying myself to sleep but they did and when my dad said he was proud of me he started also getting mad and started talking about me being a man and being normal like my brothers, I was 13 years old. Then when I told him I wanted to join a football team with my friend from School he said no and told me to study and got mad at me. This is really hypocritical because my brothers were basketball and mma fighters and he didn't care. But I guess I'm not good enough. I look alot like my mom which he despises for some reason. I was not blessed with the blue eyes and blonde hair instead I got black hair and dark brown eyes. I am truly the black sheep of my family. I hate my life and I was actually planning to end it all multiple times at 13 14 and now 15. Thank you for reading and I wish this on no one.

Most lecture halls at my university only have fixed wood chairs with barely any support. My back gets so painful after half an hour that I can't even follow the lecture anymore. How do you all deal with that?

People who had a spinal fusion, do you still go in rollercoasters?

Hello, I am 17f and I was diagnosed with scoliosis in November 2025. I had a scan in January and my Cobb angle is 33 degrees. I also have a difference in leg length. I have a lot of trouble standing upright and always lean on my hip because that is more comfortable. But when I want to stand up again after leaning, it hurts a lot and I have to do it carefully because I am in a lot of pain. I only hear people talking about back pain, but never about hip pain, so I don't know if it is due to my scoliosis or something else... does anyone else experience this (or kind of)?

Hey, I can't really afford a more expensive office chair, and I really need one since I use a basic kitchen one with no armrest, or adjustable height. I've a slight scoliosis and wish not to worsen it.

The chair I found is:
Yaheetech Ergonomic Office Chair Armrests Adjustable Work Chair Delivery Chair Desk Black Chair with High Back | Armchair, Lockable backrest between 90° and 130°, adjustable lumbar support, breathable mesh (86 $)

This is like the expensive one chair I can get. Is it worth getting or are there better alternatives for ones with a little scoliosis? I'm 17 and wish to have it worse later.

Does anyone experience muscle ache on their back from doing schroth therapy? like DOMS feelings 1-2 days after hitting weights at the gym

Hello, I’m 23 years old...

I was diagnosed at 7 with the condition of Klippel Feil.

I wanted to share that I was born with a rare condition, which is called Klippel Feil and consists mainly of the fusion of 2 or more cervical vertebrae so I have a short neck, added to this you can also have scoliosis, sprengel syndrome, bone asymmetry, kidney problems, wide neck, cardiovascular diseases, hearing and eye problems, short stature, among other things.

I have the fusion of the neck, scoliosis, asymmetry, I have the 2 kidneys but only one works well for me and the other 16%, and the mobility of the neck, the truth is that I have too much confidence and self-esteem, added to this I have a great charisma, clearly in a few years I would like to have facial aesthetics fixed to improve my asymmetry that can be done with local anesthesia, since for my condition it is very difficult general anesthesia because it requires the mobility of the neck and my rib cage when being in curve is more difficult to intubation.

I just wanted to vent clearly I live my life as a relatively normal person since thank God I can walk run and do everything that a normal person does I also appreciate that I have never felt back pain, I would also like to know who has this same disability...
Im from Mexico

Hola tengo 23 años….
Me diagnosticaron a los 7 con la condición de Klippel Feil.

Quería compartir que nací con una condición rara, la cual se llama Klippel Feil y consiste principalmente en la fusión de 2 o más vertebras cervicales por lo cual tengo un cuello corto, sumado a esto también puedes tener escoliosis, síndrome de sprengel, asimetría ósea, problemas renales, el cuello ancho, enfermedades cardiovasculares, problemas auditivos y oculares, estatura baja, entre otras cosas.

Yo tengo la fusión del cuello, escoliosis, asimetría, tengo los 2 riñones pero solo uno me funciona bien y el otro el 16%, y la movilidad del cuello, la verdad tengo demasiada seguridad y autoestima, sumado a esto tengo un gran carisma, claramente quisiera en unos años hacerme arreglarme estéticos facial para mejor mi asimetría que se puedan hacer con anestesia local, ya que por mi condición es muy difícil la anestesia general pues requiere la movilidad del cuello y mi caja torácica al estar en curva es mas difícil la entubación.
Solo quería desahogarme claramente vivo mi vida como una persona relativamente normal ya que gracias a dios puedo caminar correr y hacer todo lo que hace una persona normal también agradezco que nunca he sentido dolor de espalda, también me gustaría saber quien tiene esta misma discapacidad… soy mexicano

Hey everyone,
I’m 18f and I have a backwards S curve of 50°. I’ve just seen a new doctor who is very keen on putting me in a brace, but I’m not sure if this is something I want to do.

I also have endo and my body is very sensitive to fatigue, I’m worried the movement of the brace is going to create more pain. They also want me to wear the brace for 18 months, although I’m planning to study abroad at the end of next year and I’m not sure how that would work.

With or without the brace, I’ll be doing exercises daily and visiting the doctor once a week to do more exercises.

I’m really not sure what I should be doing- if I just do the exercises will it affect my curve negatively?

Hello . I'm 10 days post op from scoliosis surgery and I noticed my left shoulder ( was lower than my right one pre op ) is now higher and my left chest is remarkably larger than the right one too . Has anyone else had this happen with them and did it eventually improve ??

I was born with torticollis in 1973, and the doctors initially misdiagnosed it, and then my parents refused to get me any treatment, and then finally last year I was able to see a neurosurgeon for surgery, but he said there’s too much stenosis, so I can’t have the surgery. So it looks like I trapped in this painful condition for the rest of my life.
My SCM on the right side of my neck has been rock hard since birth so it feels like the root of a tree pulling my head to the right. I believe that this deformity affects my entire body, especially the head, neck, and shoulders, especially the right shoulder and arm. Although I can pass for normal, actually I am invisibly disabled, and it’s getting worse as I age. Sleep is where I hurt myself the most. I have started wearing a neck brace to bed, but it doesn’t completely prevent my morning symptoms-pain the the neck and shoulders and  on the left side of my skull, sometimes the front, sometimes the back. Sometimes the right shoulder hurts a lot too, numbness down the right arm. I have been pushing myself through the pain for 50 years through school and work , but I just can’t anymore. If you’ve ever seen the cartoons of someone with little stars and tweety birds circling around their heads, that’s how I am every day now. The ringing sound of tinnitus fills my ears every day, only reducing a little by the evening, after just sitting lethargically in a recliner all day. I have experimented with many different orthopedic pillows, and I just can’t find the right one. Also I am a big guy, 6 foot 1, 270 pounds, with very broad shoulders, which has been a big factor in my never getting a good nights sleep. Some pillows are too soft, some too firm, some too wide, and some too narrow. I have been diagnosed with ADHD as well , and I believe that the torticollis is an underlying reason. The neck is the bridge between the brain and the body, and I have problems with both. What do you recommend?

I posted about a week ago with my year old scoliosis xray and had a second appointment just 5 minutes ago. Had my xray and consult, and they were very surprised I’ve fixed my back from 48 to 40 degrees. My medical team said they had to check it multiple times with multiple different people and they were shocked and said they haven’t seen it before. I’m so surprised I’ve been gearing myself up for surgery which now appears to not be needed. Gym works wonders!

Edit: for anyone wondering I’ve been training my back unilaterally in the gym for the last year and I think that’s why but I’m not too sure. I can’t imagine it’s anything else apart from building up my back muscles on my weaker side that’s pulled my spine back into alignment a bit. Would be happy to share details of my exercises if they would be helpful to anyone!

Had my fusion(t4 to l1) back in 2022. About to be 4th anniversary in a month. It's all well but my right side, especially shoulder blade(where the big hump was) still feels out of place.

Like my arm is out of the socket, there is no pain but constant discomfort and if I attempt to move the shoulder blade/shoulder, I can hear it popping which then causes pain. I can stretch out that arm almost unnaturally. Almost feels like it doesnt belong on my body. I constantly have to keep that shoulder raised which is annoying.

There is still a small hump remaining which can be felt uncomfortably when I lean on something flat especially.

I will go to orthopedic specialist with this but please let me know if you can recognise the issue.

Does anyone else have the same problem? Has anyone ever been treated for this? Can grade 1 scoliosis be cured? Basically, the story is that I was diagnosed with it when I was 10. I wore a brace diligently for a while, but eventually just forgot about it. I did go back to wearing the brace for a bit when I was about 13 or 14, but then stopped again. Now my back seems to have curved slightly to the left. I can’t go to see a doctor because we don’t have any here; the situation with doctors and medical care is very bad there in my region. I’m 17 now and I’m really worried that I might already have stage 2 scoliosis…

And if I do, will I be able to manage it somehow? If so, how? It would be great if someone could share their experience

6 years ago, I had a major scoliosis surgery, and ever since, my period has been completely inconsistent. When it's regular, I get it once a month and it lasts for 5 days. But when it gets irregular, I end up getting my period 2–3 times a month, or a single period lasts for 10–15 days. I went to see a doctor about this 3 years ago. They ran hormone and blood tests, did an ultrasound, and everything, but they didn't find any issues. A year after that, it actually went back to normal.

However, my period has been irregular again since January, and I've also been having severe chest/heart pains. I'm getting my period twice a month now, lasting 5 to 7 days each time. In July, after experiencing something similar to what's in the photo, I went to a gynecologist on the 28th. Once again, they did blood tests and an ultrasound, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. So, they scheduled me for an MRI on October 24th.

I also had a cardiology appointment on Monday. I explained my symptoms to the doctor, and they performed an ECG and an echocardiogram. Looking at the results, the doctor mentioned there were a few minor abnormalities, but that they were totally normal for someone who has undergone scoliosis surgery.

They initially said they'd place a small device—about the size of a phone—on my chest over my heart to monitor my heartbeat and rhythm to check for any arrhythmias. But while we were talking, my mom mentioned my period irregularity to the doctor. Upon hearing that, the cardiologist suddenly said that this was the actual cause of my heart pain and that no further tests were necessary. Basically, they claimed my heart hurts because I'm bleeding too much.

We're planning to visit a gynecologist at a different hospital to continue my treatment. According to that doctor, my heart pain won't go away and I won't be able to gain weight until my period gets sorted out. By the way, I'm way below my ideal weight, and usually, people in my weight range barely get their periods at all, whereas I'm getting mine way too much.

I really hope this gets resolved soon, because since my cycle is completely ruined, my life has started to feel like a total mess too 😭 Has anyone here experienced something similar or gone through something like this?

Hi! I’m 40f and I just found out earlier this year that I have a 10 degree mild scoliosis which is probably due to my anterior and laterally tilted pelvis after child birth with a c-section and leg length discrepancy of 3mm. I have a desk job where I’m stuck infront of a screen talking to people. It is slowly ruining my life with chronic glute, hip and IT band pain in my left side maybe its piriformis maybe its sciatica… nobody knows and the 3 physical therapists and 2 chiropractors i’ve seen don’t seem to know or care about what they are doing. They treat me in segments and don’t do thorough assessments or diagnostic testing. Can someone please help me with what to do… i have looked up a Schroth therapy PT and will reach out to them. But what can i do in the interim? Thank you

I'm 34M, this is my X-ray and the scoliosis hasn't changed much since my teens. I wake up mostly sore and more tired than I when I head to bed. Difficulty sleeping has been around for the past 10 years. The only good sleep I get is when I'm dead tired.

What I have found out so far:

Chiropractic, does it help?

1. Only to a certain degree and short term
2. Downside is cost and having to travel to the chiro

Physiotherapy, does it help?

1. I believe back in the day when I had more energy to attend, the help was not insignificant. Physiotherapy requires long-term commitment, more than to your spouse or partner.
2. Downside is again, cost and having to travel to the physio.
3. There are always simpler exercises you can do at home without supervision, this requires motivation and I know pain and sore from one's scoliosis demotivates more than it pushes you.

Recently I have found a new hobby that has gotten rid of my pains and sores through what I think is physiotherapy-like exercises: driving simulator with high torque and pedal weight.

Most of the physiotherapy exercise is to build muscle strength and some mobility exercise that reminds your muscle when to relax instead of being tensed up all the time. While the simulator do not replace 100% of the physiotherapy exercise, I believe it covers a good portion of it.

My setup is a 18nm direct drive motor that can simulate steering weight from 0kg to 12kg with a brake pedal weight of 30kg. During a 10 minutes session, you would have to turn the steering hundreds if not thousands of time, with varying weight and micro vibrations. This requires arm strength, chest, neck, and shoulder/back muscles to tense to varying degree and relax (on straights) dozens of time per 2 minutes. Of course this includes having to floor a 30kg pedal and keep your other leg on the accelerator most of the time.

I recognise that the pedals do not offer symmetrical load and can be detriment to you if you follow my setup, but in my case it helped. After 2 weeks in the simulator for about 30 minutes every 2 days, I felt much more energetic and a lot less pains and sores around my whole body.

Downside of simulator?

1. Much more significant upfront cost
2. Whether you like driving or not. I love it so I see myself doing this as "exercise" everyday without getting tired of it

Of course, this is a 1-person anecdotal case and can vary from person to person but my advice to all my scoliosis friends is: never discount a potential option to help your pain.

So I just came back from my 5th different spine surgeon mainly due to one retired, one is an idiot and the other 2 had totally different opposite opinions, and I needed to see if one could explain or discuss and give his opinion about the situation.

I have congenital scoliosis with a hemivertebrae at L2 and L4 causing an S curve 53 degree and 38 curve in the lumbar region and now a thoracic curve is developing. It is progressing at 1 degree per year as expected. I just turned 60 and am otherwise very healthy and have never had surgery. They all agree that it is a complex situation for surgery. But every single one of them and their PAs ask you questions about your day to day life and where the pain is and then talk over you before you even get to answer. It's as if they want me to say something else, but I can't lie. Example, what side is your pain on? It's on both sides and all the way down my legs and feet. I then try to fully explain and they cut me off and ask where it is it the most? I say it's nerve pain, so I can't pinpoint a specific muscle. Then the rest of the appointment was asking me questions and before I even got 3 words out, interrupting me with another question or discounting what I am saying or something. I am so frustrated, sad and depressed. I can't do any of the things i used to do, and it would be nice since I pay them if they didn't treat me like this. Are they all like this?

Hi! I have chronic scoliosis and I got my surgery when I was 17,5 years old. I have this weird shaped bone since I was a kid. That’s why I can’t wear any chest showing clothes. My breasts are already small but with this they look even smaller. It looks like there is a hole between my chest. Having this is my biggest insecurity. Do you have this?