How To Get Social Security Disability & SSI Benefits: Scoliosis

Winning A Scoliosis Case

With your scoliosis case, Social Security can award you disability or SSI benefits if you satisfy – 1) Non-Medical Criteria and 2) Disability Criteria. In terms of the disability criteria, you should understand how Social Security evaluates scoliosis (covered on this page) and Submit Winning Evidence.

What Is Social Security Looking for – Scoliosis And Medical Proof

Social Security will take your scoliosis disability case seriously. Scoliosis is an abnormal curve (a C-shaped or S-shaped curve) of the spine. There are five kinds of scoliosis:

1. Congenital (spine deformed at birth),
2. Early-onset (appears before age 10),
3. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (occurs in adolescents after age 10),
4. Degenerative (scoliosis in adults caused by degenerative disk disease and/or prior scoliosis), and
5. Neuromuscular scoliosis (abnormalities of the muscles or nervous system).

While reviewing your medical, Social Security will be more likely to find you disabled if you suffer the following typical scoliosis symptoms:

1. Pain,
2. Numbness,
3. Stiffness,
4. Lack of range of motion,
5. Symmetry abnormalities, and
6. Nerve damage/neuropathy if nerves are affected.

Your medical record is the heart of your Social Security disability and SSI disability case because it reveals the nature of your impairment and the disabling degree of your scoliosis. Social Security will review your scoliosis diagnosis which is done by x-ray, CT scan, MRI, and EMG if your nerves are affected (neuropathy and radiculopathy). Social Security will also review your scoliosis treatment which involves pain medications, anti-inflammatories, and muscle relaxers. In severe cases, casting and bracing are prescribed and both are more common for children than adults. Surgeries are generally performed when a patient has 40-45% degree of curvature or more, and surgeries are also more common in children than adults. Surgeries are very significant – involving primarily bone grafts/fusion and rod placement – Back & Neck Surgeries And How They Affect Your SSDI/SSI Social Security Disability Case. Complications after surgery are common.

Social Security recognizes that scoliosis may cause many other spine-related impairments such as bulging discs, spinal stenosis, facet arthritis, or cord or nerve root compromise. Social Security also recognizes that scoliosis can also cause many other non-spinal medical impairments (e.g. respiratory, cardiac, neurological, and orthopedic) each involving different symptoms, treatment, and disability evaluations. If you or your child suffer additional spine or non-spine-related impairments, review those impairments as well because you can be awarded on the basis of scoliosis or on the bases of scoliosis and all the other impairments scoliosis caused.

Social Security & SSI Scoliosis Listing

There is no specific listing for scoliosis. However, there are three listings directly related to scoliosis and a disorder of the spine that can be relied upon in a scoliosis disability case:

1. Major dysfunction of a joint –Adult Listing 1.02 and Child Listing 101.02,
2. Disorders of the spine with either nerve root compression or stenosis with pseudoclaudication (essentially another word for nerve root compression) – Adult Listing 1.04 and Child Listing 101.04,
3. Inflammatory arthritis with inflammation, joint deformity, or ankylosing spondylitis or other spondyloarthropathies (types of arthritis that affect the spinal vertebrae) – Adult Listing 14.09 and Child Listing 114.09A.

Because scoliosis can cause many other medical conditions, additional listings may be relevant such as – 1) respiratory – Adult listings 3.00 and Child listings 103.00, 2) cardiac – Adult listings 4.00 and Child listings 104.00, and 3) neurological – Adult listings 11.00 and Child listings 111.00.

Helpful Resources

1. Degenerative Scoliosis Video – Spine-health
2. Idiopathic Scoliosis Video – Spine-health