Chiropractic Care For Teenagers
I blinked and my baby grew up
The teenage years are a time of growth both emotionally and physically as the brain and body matures. This is the second most intense growth phase in your child’s life. During this time, the spine can grow at about 10cms per year. For boys this tends to be between ages 14 and 15 and for girls between 12 and 13. The teenage growth spurt ends around age 20 for boys and 18 for girls.
As their body grows, the brain is trying its best to keep up with understanding the new version of itself. Not everything grows at the same time at the same rate. This makes teenagers feel quite foreign in their own body. Their centre of gravity lifts and movement can become uneasy and often clumsy.
During the teenage years there are several environmental elements that can place further stress on the spine.
- The daily use of devices
- Sport, training and poor stretching and cool down
- The weight of School Bags
Complimentary Phone
Consultations Available
Not quite sure if chiropractic is right for your teenager? Our practice director Dr Jacey Pryjma offers 15 min complimentary phone consultations for new families.
Take the opportunity to ask the questions you have before making an appointment. Find out if chiropractic and Australian Children's Chiropractic Centre may be just what you have been searching for.
To book a complimentary phone consultation with Dr Jacey please click below to contact us or book online.
Devices & Posture Strain
Whether it be computer work for school, mobile phone use or recreational use of tablets and gaming, there is no denying screen time creates sedentary behaviours and stressed postures.
With the overall decrease in outdoor play and movement in the younger years, more and more children and not developing core strength and tone to support optimal postural strength development.
This can place the child at a higher risk of posture strain from sustained postures like those often seen when technology is in use.
Technology connects our world, but can be detrimental to growing bodies
Our chiropractors measure and monitor posture and also actively educate and work with teenagers to learn better habits to support their spinal health long term.
Sport injuries and strain on a growing body
Participating in sport brings so many benefits to growing minds and bodies. As teens engage in higher contact sports, faster sports and playing with other growing teens, injuries can often occur.
With increased skills and agility, injuries can often be more serious when they occur.
Supporting your teens to keep doing what they love
Our chiropractors not only support you and your teen to understand what is happening in acute scenarios, they also will do a full posture, orthopaedic, muscular and neurological assessment to look at the body is a holistic manner to understand the different elements at play that may be leading to concerns or preventing optimal performance.
School Bags - Heavy & Worn Incorrectly
The teenage years also coincide with an increase in school bag weight. Research has shown a relationship between puberty and back pain, and school bags are thought to further exacerbate the stress load experienced by teenagers.
Heavy school bags change posture
Increased weight adds loading through the spine. When bags are quite heavy, they can make it difficult for your teen to stand properly. Heavy bags lead to compensation patters like rolled forward shoulders, forward head carriage and bending forward at the waist.
Our chiropractors will show your teen how to fit a school bag correctly as part of their care.
Puberty & Back Pain
There is emerging evidence that link between back pain and puberty. The literature describes a steady increase in idiopathic adolescent spinal pain (IASP) with age and approximate adult levels around age of 18 years.
Research has also shown that teenagers who experience back pain are more likely to be adults who experience back pain. Our Chiropractors are trained to understand the biomechanics of the spine during this time of rapid growth and address the reasons why your child may be experiencing discomfort.
Holistic Care For Teenagers
At ACCC we are goal oriented.
This is what sets us apart! ACCC utilises then WellKids program to optimise our assessment procedure, ensuring we gain quality information about your child’s health and neurological development.
We provide a thorough report detailing goals specific to your child and we monitor these with testing each visit and a complete review assessment following each care plan to ensure the goals are being fulfilled.
We aim to support your family to achieve the goals we agree on at the report, and our review appointments ensure we are meeting these goals.
Regular assessment also allows you to visibly witness your child’s progression!
Regular posture image, range of motion, muscle strength and tone, brain organisation comparisons are incredible tools used to observe your child as the move through Chiropractic care.
You can be assured that your child’s health and development is thoroughly assessed during our initial consultation and review appointments. This helps your family and our Chiropractors to create realistic and achievable health goals for your child.
Having clear and agreed upon goals from the outset optimises your experience in our centre, and provides a known baseline for us to work from.
The Chiropractors in our centre love review appointments as they help us take note of the improvements in children under care. They also provide a distinct opportunity to determine if more support is needed with home-care, or alongside other professionals.