Warning: Orthodontic braces may cause scoliosis. I believe it. And I believe it happened to me.
A while back, I was having intense myofascial work done by my fascial therapist and she was working intensely on my head, where I usually have many muscular and fascial issues. She was actually working inside my mouth and jaw.
Oddly, I started to feel a shift inside my spine. At the same time, I started tasting cold metal inside my mouth. It was the weirdest feeling. All of the sudden, my mind flashed back to when I had braces on my teeth, some 20 odd years ago. It was the very first time I ever even considered that there was a real connection between scoliosis and orthodontics.
After years of pondering this connection, I began talking to people in multiple industries and specialties, and doing my own fair share of research.
Now I’m quite sure there’s a link.
There’s a fascia connection that goes from inside the jaw and mouth down the spine. Thomas Myers (no relation) confirmed his discovery while doing cadaver work (see graphic below, the blue areas indicate the fascial line):
Now this next video is graphic but if your stomach can handle it, watch this clip of him describing this line and all that connects with this fascia. You’ll be able to see why rolling your feet out helps release this line of fascia, which encompasses your spine.
I had braces on my teeth for two and a half years and had to wear headgear to correct an overbite from fifth to seventh grade. The metal part of the headgear pulled my top jaw back while a cloth strap wrapped around my neck and pulled it forward.
Knowing what I know now, I truly believe this is what started my scoli.
Research shows that the sagittal profile (looking at a person from the side) is affected when a person has scoli[i]. So, shifting a person’s jaw forward or backward shifts that alignmentii.
Interestingly, my only sibling has scoliosis too. His is not as intense as mine, but it’s there nonetheless. He, too, had braces around the same age I did and had some jaw-adjusting apparatuses along with his braces. The ratio of boys to girls who have scoli is 20/80, so my brother is in the minority. The most interesting piece to our scoli family puzzle is that scoliosis doesn’t appear in our familial past. Meaning, our scoliosis doesn’t seem to have a genetic past.
So, where does our scoli come from? I believe our braces and jaw-moving apparatus was the main culprit for both of our scoliosis.
In the Beautiful Scoliotic Back, I recount working with a set of genetically identical twins, both of whom had scoliosis. Their mother was going to have one of them get braces and rubber bands to help with her overbite. I pleaded with her over the span of multiple lessons to reconsider because her daughter was going through puberty and I was very worried that any teeth and jaw-shifting would make her daughter’s scoliosis worse – and it did.
I reached out to a skilled Pilates instructor and myofascial therapist whom I knew a long time ago because I thought I remembered her telling me about a connection between braces and scoliosis. Sure enough, here is an excerpt from an email she sent me about the topic:
“My main experience (with scoliosis and orthodontics) was witnessing at the dance studio. The generation of children that started wearing dental headgear at ages 7-9, around (the year) 1998, was the highest percentage of scoliosis in teenagers we ever had. They all went to one orthodontist – Dr. K (I took the name out to protect his identity). We actually had four students in scoliosis (back) braces out of about 160 kids. They all had worn early (orthodontic) braces as well as expanders and/or had their bites changed dramatically. The lack of stabilization coupled with dancer-type loose ligaments and dramatic hormone changes did not set them up for success by ages 12-13. Whatever that orthodontist was aggressively doing to those young children then, seems to have tempered in the last decade.”
Research shows that there is a plausible correlation between malocclusion and scoliosis. Malocclusion is the misalignment of the top and bottom teeth as the top and bottom jaws bites together. The research shows that scoliosis and malocclusion are often related. If you have scoliosis, often times a deviation of the alignment of the jaw will be present. This also shows that if you realign the jaw, the spine will be affected. If a deviation of both the spine (scoliosis) and the jaw (malocclusion) are present, and you fix the alignment of the jaw, the scoliosis sometimes gets better.
But what about my case, where scoliosis wasn’t present but malocclusion was present? I had a deviated jaw but a straight spine. I wonder what would’ve happened to my straight spine if I had left my deviated jaw where it was. After my orthodontic work I had a straight jaw and a deviated spine. If research shows that there’s a positive correlation between the jaw and the spine, realizing there is a correlation between orthodontics and scoliosis isn’t that hard to fathom.
We’re so obsessed with perfection and vanity in America. A parent of one of my young scoli clients repeated what an orthodontist said to her about her child having a correctly aligned jaw and straight teeth, saying “it’s a first world problem.” How important is a “perfect” smile to you? Royalty from other countries have imperfect smiles and they seem to be doing just fine on the popularity scales.
Full disclosure: my dad is a dentist. I know he would never knowingly put me in harm’s way. That’s the point: most of us don’t know about this connection between orthodontic braces and scoli. Get out there! Ask questions! I can tell you this: my kids aren’t getting braces or any having any orthodontic work done while they are living under my roof. I wouldn’t bless my spine on my children in a million years. I’m going to let them live with the mouths they have in an effort to keep their spines straight.
Will you think twice about getting braces for your children?
[i] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16166889
iihttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24231781
Hello, i dont gave scoli for now but i am considering removing the fixed retainers that i have been wearing for 2 years now because of some jaw pain and neck pain that i had never experienced before. Do you think i should remove the retainers? I dont care anymore about my misaligned teeth, but i do about my cervicals. Any thoughts?
Hi Inmaculada, You could remove your fixed retainer, but first I’d try massage. Find a highly trained massage therapist that will do massage work inside your mouth (they wear medical gloves) to release tight tissue. You may have some really tight fascia and muscles inside your mouth and if that’s released your pain may go away. Give it a try. -Erin
I am also a scoliosis patient who had teeth braces. I wish there will be some sort of seminar or talkshow about those correlation. And if nessecary the talkshow needs testimony i believe lots of people will voluntary include me.
Thanks for sharing this.
You have explained well enogh so that i could share this to my doctor colleagues.
Hi Valent, I’d love to see more seminars and workshops about the correlation between dental braces and scoliosis. I’d be happy to give a talk on it if you ever have a platform, as I speak about it in the workshops I give currently. Keep spreading the word to your doctor colleagues. Blessings, Erin
hey, my name is summer and im now 20, I have recently seeked help with my shoulder / back pain ive been experiencing as well as numbness of the legs. so i decided to see a chiropractor and they had told me that i have scoliosis, my shoulder also sits higher that the other shoulder and ive been experiencing spinal shift for about 4 years now. so i looked up some videos today on you tube about how to correct my shoulder from being higher than the other and i found out about the muscle that connects to your shoulder as swell as up your neck and to the back of your ear. when that muscle tightens it causes your shoulder to sit higher and eventually you find the muscle just keeps tightening. its painful. it then got me thinking what if having orthodontic braces when i was a child ages 15 caused me to have scoliosis. because i thought once one muscle in the shoulder / back is effected it might also effect other parts of the body. my chiropractor explained to me that one shoulder is twisted forward and sits higher than the other and the opposite hip bone twists forward and sits higher than the other which was causing my spine to twist at two different directions from both ends of my spine causing the middle part of my back between the shoulder blades to be majorly effected, to the point where i couldn’t sleep at night. so then i search up if braces may effect your spine and i found this website, which gave me some sort of understanding to why i am developing silicosis, i also had braces for 2 and a half years . it made me think? maybe the tightening of the braces and the pressure it puts on the jaw muscles effects the muscles that connect your neck, jaw and shoulders together get pulled on causing them to tighten and because they are tight it caused my bones in the shoulder to adapt to its new positioning and then eventually started to travel all over my back down to my hips!! when i go to my chiropractor he always checks the gap of my jaw bones and he said that one side of my jaw sits higher than the other meaning there is a tension in the muscle . i truly belive that braces gave me scoliosis. I dont recommend giving your child braces when there body is still developing.
IM A HEALTHY 20 YEAR OLD STUDENT WHO HAS BEEN PLAYING SPORTS MY WHOLE LIFE, SUCH AS RUNNING AND NETBALL AS WELL AS FOOTBALL, IM FEMALE AND AT MY AGES I genuinely SHOULD NOT BE experiencing THESE BODY SHIFTS IN MY SPINE!
THIS SITE WAS VERY HELPFUL, THANK YOU.
KIND REGARDS
SUMMER GODDARD
Hi Summer, thanks for typing out your experience. There are so many people who’ve had very similar experiences. There’s no reason for you to be in pain. I have lots of resources for people who have scoliosis to get you out of pain. Please visit https://spiralspine.com/i-have-scoliosis/ on my site and take time to watch the videos, read my blogs, and see all the different ways I can help you get out of scoli pain. Great job researching what’s going on in your body. Blessings, Erin
I am 51 year old male diagnosed almost 4-months ago (7/2019) severe right rhomboid scapular winging with 27° thoracolumbar levoconvex, 17° Compensatory Thoracic dextroscolios and loss of cervical lordosis. After extensive research, I have not been able to find one person in my heritage ever having scoliosis. Not one. I have had many x-rays, several CT scans & myelograms of entire the spine since I was 22. With the exception of osteoarthritis my spine has always looked normal and straight. In 2017 it was straight.
As a military brat in Germany, I had braces installed at the age of 12 which included a double head-gear and tons of rubber-bands for an overbite. My mother had my head-gear wired in permenantly since I would remove it before school for obvious reasons. (I did immediately remove the wires with wire cutters). Point is I remember the pain.
I never considered the correlation between braces from adolescence and my current scoliosis. Shouldnt my scoliosis have appeared much sooner in life if related to braces/head-gears?
Thanks and best of grace,
TD
Hi TD,
Your Scoli is interesting. It is interesting that your scoli arose very recently. I’m hesitant to make a correlation with orthodontics and scoli in your case because there was such a time laps. But, the body remembers everything that has been done to it, so I wonder what happened in the last year or so that could possibly have triggered head/neck/thoracic misalignment. I wouldn’t put it past the body to remember the trauma it endured and have that play into the body. I’d suggest you see a myofascial or neurmuscular therapist who is willing to do work in your mouth (I’ve had it done many time). They pretty much massage the fascia and muscles in your face, neck, and upper body. I’d be intrigued to see what happens and what you experience. We can do a virtual lesson if you want some input on exercises you can do for your spine. We need to figure out the root of your scoli…
Blessings,
Erin
I had standard metal braces for 2 years when I was 12. All got back and became even worse. Now I am 31 and this is my first month wearing Invisalign aligners. My back started to ache and I wonder if there is a connection…
Thanks for this thought provoking post!
İ had dental braces in my 17 and in my 36 (because it all turned back to previous disalignment, dentist forgot to tell me about my wisdom-teeth should be pulled out:( ) In my 36 , it lasted more than 3years , and since then i have scoliosis that i noticed it towards the end of brace treatment for the second time. and i have one-sided jaw problems, and bad teeth gum and more, my teeth again want to align in previous position. i don’t know about teenagers but orthodontic treatment is total waste of time, money and health. that,’s what i feel.
I just want to share how much I appreciate this article and how I have experienced very similar conditions to the ones presented here. The link between braces and scoliosis seems to be pretty evident which is why people need to know the repercussions to getting braces. I would take my old crooked teeth and smile over the pain I am experiencing now in a heartbeat. Thanks for sharing this post.
Certainly thought provoking as I also have an under bite and scoliosis too. And like you, I’ve only worn braces to straighten my teeth for about two and a half years also.
Interestingly, I was working with a new client yesterday and at the end of her lesson she asked me if there was any correlation between orthodontics, TMJ, and scoli (she hand’t read this blog post). She suspected her scoli was partially connected for her former orthodontics and the TMJ she currently deals with. You are not the only person who suspects correlation between them all. I’ve recently come across a ton more research confirming my theory…I hope to get some more blog posts showing my findings in the future. Blessings, Erin
This completely aligns with issues I’m currently dealing with. I’m in my late 30s. I started experiencing TMJ issues after having orthodontics in my teens. TMJ has gotten progressively worse, as has a noticible head tilt and facial misalignment. Finally went to a chiropractor (I’ve suspected more and more that my entire spine is now wrapped up in these issues), and sure enough, I now have scoliosis that I did not have as a teen when I was checked in school. And other issues like uneven hips, etc. Trying to figure out if there’s a non-invasive way to correct this, or at least stop the progression.
Susie, thanks for your comment. Follow your instinct. For the time being I’d suggest you find a person who does Structural Integration/Rolfing. In session 7 of what they call “the 10 series” an hour and half is spent with the therapist’s hand releasing tight fascia all around your head (including in your ears, nose, and mouth while wearing gloves). I’ve found that the 7th session is what gives my scoli the most relief. I’ve had a few people send me tons of research and papers written about this topic from all over the world. I haven’t had time to sit down, sift through it all, and write a few good blog posts on it though since I opened my latest Pilates studio. I hope to have more time this year to give you more proactive things to do for your orthodontic/TMJ induced scoli. Stay tuned! Blessings, Erin