The teenage years are a time of rapid growth. Teenagers experience critical physical, mental, and emotional changes. The body undergoes significant physical development during this stage with frequent growth spurts. Teenagers can experience a variety of common physical stressors, including sports injuries, technology use for school and recreation, and poor sitting and sleeping posture. Other common stressors for teenagers include schoolwork, extracurricular activities, social & relationship stressors, jobs, subpar nutrition choices, and all the decisions that come with making post-high school plans.
Teens and their parents often overlook the role that a healthy spine and nervous system play in helping navigate the stressors of becoming an adult. The primary role of the spine is to protect the spinal cord and ensure that information can flow from the brain to the body and from the body back to the brain. When the spinal bones misalign, also known as a subluxation, it can affect the quality, quantity, and speed of the messages passing between the brain and the body. Subluxation can impact cognitive function, sleep, mood, movement, and overall body function. Getting your spine and nervous system checked is the best way to ensure that they are functioning properly. When the nervous system is working properly, it is easier for teens to manage the many stressors they may encounter.
At Family First Chiropractic, we prioritize assessing nervous system function in teenagers to prevent common stressors and chronic childhood conditions from progressing to accelerated degeneration and exaggerated dysfunction in adulthood. Subluxations, when caught early, can typically be corrected much more quickly than misalignments that have persisted in the spine for years. With a properly aligned spine and optimally functioning nervous system, teens can function at a higher level and are better equipped to make good decisions.
A new patient appointment for a teen at Family First Chiropractic starts with a consultation with one of our doctors. The doctor will ask a series of questions to learn more about your teen’s health concerns and daily habits. Information gathered during the consultation will help the doctor determine which examinations and tests are necessary to pinpoint spinal misalignments that may be affecting your teen’s health. The doctor may perform posture and range-of-motion tests, thermography scans to measure inflammation levels, or digital X-rays to visualize the position of spinal bones. Once the doctor has a chance to review all the testing, you and your teen will return to the office for a report of findings so the doctor can share the results and a plan of action to help your teen achieve the best possible level of health.
Book Your Teen’s First Pediatric Care Exam
Exam includes in-depth whole-body analysis with provider, posture pictures and insight nervous system scans (provided if necessary). Consultation & plan of action will help you understand your care options.
How Our Chiropractic Care for Teenagers Works
1. Help Them Advance Early
Our mission is to improve the alignment of the spine and the nervous system, which are essential for the proper development and function of the body and the brain.
2. Keep Them Healthy
Chiropractic care can prevent or relieve common childhood issues such as ear infections, colic, asthma, allergies, headaches, and more, by enhancing the immune system and reducing inflammation.
3. Optimize Their Outlook
Our goal is to foster a positive attitude and a sense of well-being in your child by relieving stress, pain, and tension and promoting a healthy lifestyle and habits.
How We Help Teenagers At Each Stage In Their Development in West Omaha, NE
Chiropractic for Teenagers (12-18 Years)
While teenagers may not experience symptoms such as back pain or headaches that many people associate with chiropractic adjustments, they can still be good candidates for chiropractic care. Daily life for teenagers often includes excessive amounts of screen time. Many schools now provide students with a laptop used throughout the school day for instruction and test-taking, as well as after school for homework. Screen usage extends beyond educational purposes for many teens. Recreational pursuits such as smartphone use and TV show binges often fill a teen’s after-school and late-night hours. Access to social media can expose teens to higher stress levels because of social media pressure and cyberbullying. The teenage years also come with increased independence once teens start driving, which can make it easier to access nutritional pitfalls like gas-station snacks and fast-food meals. Even the ability to order food delivery has changed many teenagers’ dietary habits due to its convenience and widespread use.
The teenage years also come with significant changes in hormone levels. At times, these changes are so fast and extreme that they can mimic the usage of synthetic estrogen, growth hormones, or anabolic steroids. The chemical changes in a teenager’s body during these developmental stages can cause frequent mood swings due to hormonal fluctuations and the way the teen’s developing brain responds to them. A teenager can go from full rage to a crying spell in a matter of seconds. Disruptions in the nervous system can make it more difficult to adapt to hormonal shifts by reducing the body’s ability to respond appropriately.
Common Challenges for Teenagers in West Omaha, NE
Sports Injuries
Many of today’s teens participate in some form of sports activity. School sports teams, recreational leagues, year-round clubs, and even casual games offer teenagers opportunities to stay active. However, they can also result in sports-related injuries. When a teen suffers a sports-related injury, it is best to address the injury as soon as possible. Especially when dealing with joint injuries, healing time generally decreases when the injury is assessed quickly. The longer an injury goes without intervention, the more likely it is to develop fibrous scar tissue, abnormal function, and permanent loss of full range of motion. When injuries are evaluated immediately, or as close to the time of injury as possible, specific chiropractic adjustments are more effective in restoring proper motion and function to vertebrae and other joints. This can not only ensure a faster return to play but also help keep them on the field longer through continued chiropractic care.
Tech Neck and Headaches
The use of technology is nearly unavoidable in today’s society. Teens are often required to utilize tablets or laptops for school. Many teens have their own cellphones. Today’s homes have a television in almost every room. Near-constant screen usage has contributed to an epidemic of injuries to the soft tissue, bones, and joints of the cervical and thoracic spine. It is more common than ever before for teenagers to be diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and bone spurs that have formed as a result of neck injuries from tech usage. Forward-leaning posture that is commonly observed with tech use creates excessive stress on the lower thoracic spine, increasing the risk of irreversible compression fractures in the mid-back. Subluxations (or misalignments) and compression fractures in the mid-back can pinch nerves and decrease the effectiveness of the digestive and cardiovascular systems. Over time, as the body lays down bony fibers between joints to protect itself, early-onset arthritis begins to form, and further disc degeneration and damage to vertebral body endplates will occur.
Attention and Mood Issues
Attention and mood issues are common reasons for parents to seek chiropractic care for their teenagers. Subluxations, or spinal misalignments, put pressure on nerves and can interfere with communication between a teen’s brain and body. This is especially troublesome during the teen years due to rapid growth. When communication between a teen’s brain and body isn’t clear, it is difficult for the body to adapt to the constant barrage of natural and environmental stressors. Lowered ability to adapt translates into a reduced capacity to focus and self-regulate emotions. Increased hormone production during this time also affects a teen’s attention and mood. Constantly shifting hormones can pull a teen’s attention and mood in many different directions in a short period of time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is chiropractic safe for teenagers?
Chiropractic adjustments are proven to be incredibly safe for teenagers when performed by a licensed, knowledgeable professional who has completed a comprehensive examination of the teen’s spine and nervous system.
Can chiropractic help with sports performance or injuries?
Chiropractic is a great tool to increase sports performance and help avoid injury. Adjustments ensure that spinal bones are properly aligned and that joints maintain sufficient range of motion. Nearly every professional sports team employs a chiropractor on its staff to keep players healthy and support injury prevention and recovery.
Does chiropractic care help with poor posture in teens?
Chiropractic adjustments can help correct spinal problems that teenagers experience due to poor posture, excessive screen time, sedentary desk posture in the classroom, sports injuries, and more. When a teen’s subluxations aren’t corrected in a timely manner, they can lead to more serious problems, such as early-onset degeneration of the vertebral discs.
Will adjustments hurt?
Patients generally have one of three responses following a chiropractic adjustment. First, the patient may feel some discomfort or muscle soreness from the adjustment. Second, the patient could feel great after the adjustment because they got symptom relief or a burst of energy. Third, the patient may feel almost nothing. All three responses are normal. Any soreness the patient may experience following an adjustment is generally short-lived. Regardless of the sensation felt with a chiropractic adjustment, it is important to follow the doctor’s aftercare instructions, which typically include a short walk and icing any areas that were adjusted to decrease the body’s natural inflammatory response.
How often should a teenager see a chiropractor?
Adjustment frequency is always determined by two factors: the doctor’s exam findings and the patient’s goals. When starting chiropractic care, it is common to be seen more frequently. Generally, the healing response in a teenager occurs much more quickly than in an adult because misalignments haven’t been present as long, and teens often have greater healing capacity.
Book Your Teenager’s First Pediatric Care Exam
Exam includes in-depth whole-body analysis with provider, posture pictures and insight nervous system scans (provided if necessary). Consultation & plan of action will help you understand your care options.