Flea_girl: Agreed! RT @Glamourpuss15 Okay, so is it just me, or do all girls/women hope for a Jake Ryan in their lives after watching Sixteen Candles?
about 14 hours ago
Hays33d: Anthony Michael Hall was very angry on Community tonight. Very disappointed we didn't get any inside "Vacation" or "Sixteen Candles" refs.
about 15 hours ago
Glamourpuss15: Okay, so is it just me, or do all girls/women hope for a Jake Ryan in their lives after watching Sixteen Candles??
about 17 hours ago
ShayLeigh1920: Damn, a tattoo straight down my side or my back is in progress. F*** the scoliosis.
about 18 hours ago
ndupes: @spartanville The Royal Tenebaums or Sixteen Candles
about 19 hours ago
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The Milwaukee Brace was developed in Milwaukee in 1946 and used worldwide. |
 | By Molly Snyder Edler   OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Molly Snyder Edler |
| Published Aug. 26, 2005 at 5:20 a.m. |
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Many of us read about the Milwaukee Brace in Judy Blume's novel "Deenie," saw it portrayed in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" and "Sixteen Candles" (who can forget Joan Cusack trying to drink from a bubbler while wearing the restrictive headgear?) and endured the dreaded "scoliosis test" in elementary school.
But it seems the Milwaukee Brace was more "in fashion" a couple of decades ago, so we tracked down Dr. Stephen Robbins, an orthopedic surgeon with the Milwaukee Spinal Specialists, and asked him if the Milwaukee Brace is still used today and why it's named after our city. (Hmmm ... Doesn't "Brew City Brace" have a better ring to it?)
"The Milwaukee brace is definitely used less today than it was. It works well with certain conditions, but you have to find the right type of patient and the right type of curve," says Robbins.
Today, the brace is used for a particular kind of scoliosis called thoracic scoliosis and for a condition called Scheuermann's Disease. It is also used in young children with certain congenital spine deformities.
"Years ago, if a kid had a curvature of the spine, they were put in the (Milwaukee) brace," says Robbins. "But we've research more, have more information about the natural history of the condition now, and the Milwaukee Brace is not always our first choice."
Drs. Walter Blount and Albert Schmidt at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Milwaukee's Children's Hospital developed the Milwaukee Brace in 1946. For decades, the Milwaukee Brace was the golden standard in the conservative treatment of scoliosis worldwide.
The brace consists of a pelvic circle, throat mold, and various bars, straps and pressure pads that work together to hold a curvature and prevent it from worsening. Unfortunately, to be effective the brace has to be worn around the clock and usually during adolescence.
Karen Johnson grew up on the North Side and wore a Milwaukeee Brace from the age of 12 to 15.
"It was rough," she says. "I remember going to a dance at my junior high and nobody asked me to dance."
Robbins says, partly because of the cosmetic hardships on kids who wear the brace, orthopedics are more inclined to observe a child with borderline scoliosis then to fit them for a brace immediately. Plus, other braces that are softer and easier to hide beneath clothing have been developed to make the experience less traumatic. However, if other treatments are ruled out, the Milwaukee Brace is very effective.
"When 'Sixteen Candles' first came out I was totally offended by the girl in the brace, but I saw the movie recently and I laughed so hard I cried," says Johnson.
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Recent Talkbacks ...
Posted by addie274 on Aug. 13, 2009 at 2:37 p.m. (report)
I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 12, and they wanted me to wear the Milwaukee brace, but we went and got a second opinion on another option- didn't like that the Milwaukee went up to the chin! I ended up in the Boston Brace from age 12-16 and it stopped my curvacure (I had a more severe upper curve) from getting any worse. I still have it around the house somewhere!
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Posted by liliQ on April 10, 2009 at 1:27 p.m. (report)
Just found the discussion. Wore a Milwaukee brace in the late 60s. Wonderful experience trying to read books on an easel in junior high school, and having people grab the two bars in back and shake me periodically. Of an of course, all the people I knew through elementary school suddenly lost all their memory of me. And the endless pain of having to try and sleep in the thing was undbearable. The brace was a sentence not a remedy.
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Posted by Claud68 on Dec. 7, 2008 at 12:58 p.m. (report)
I wore a Milwaukee brace through high school in the 80's. I was seen by Dr. Ziggy(sp) at the Blount Clinic when it was on Wisconsin Ave. For me wearing a steel and leather harness was actually a self-esteem booster. I had to wear it 23/7 and my Mom made a big deal about buying me a new wardrobe to fit over my brace. I got mostly really big turtle necks to hide the steel collar and chin and neck pads. That thing was really hard on clothes! (and on all my bony spots-I was a skinny kid). I was a geeky looking girl with glasses, a perm (what was I thinking), and a Milwaukee Brace. Not a thing I could do about any of it except make the best of it and that was when I learned not to worry about what anyone else thought or said. If I wouldn't have taken that attitude it would have done me in. At the end of senior year when I got contacts and got out of my brace I was like a butterfly coming out of my cacoon. I never had surgery and although I still end up in therapy occasionally for back pain, I am doing fairly well. If anyone wants to contact me, my email is claudine@ameritech.net
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Posted by rivad on July 20, 2008 at 10:40 p.m. (report)
I wore a milwaukee brace for sixteen years and in that time was fitted for 20 different braces through two growth spurts and general growing .my mom and dad made sure thaty I wore the brace for the requsite 23 hours EVERY day at the time I I thought it harsh ,but as the time in brace ground on I became accustomed to it and now at age 58 ,I am glad they made me do just that because at age 37 I was put back into the milwaukee brace for another eight years for Kyphosis,and,again 23 hours per day but no parents to enforce it ,just the knowledge that this was going to help me ,if I did not try to cheat the treatment ,well I did not cheat ,and it did help tp get me through it again.I was all done with the milwaukee brace until I was broadsided by a drunk driver doing about 120 mph through an interrsection,and that landed me with yet another m/b to help hold my spine in place til the surgeons could figure out what to do with my back ,and as it worked out they just left well enough alone ,although I am still wearing it for 23 hours per day I have no regrets about having to wear it as a kid ,because ,up until the car wreck I had a perfectgly functional spine ,so if you are ever told that you have to wear a brace for spinal problems ,follow exactly what the docs say as they really do know what they are talking about until the wreck my back was as perfect as one could ever hope for
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Posted by jupiter on Jan. 15, 2008 at 9:17 p.m. (report)
I have been using the Milwaukee brace for the past 33 years for Intractible Pain Syndrome ,and when in the brace there is no pain ,yes it is cumbersome ,but the offset of being pain free is worth it ,and after a while it gets to be old hat ,just something else to do when you get dressed in the morning ,no real big deal,til I dont have it ,then its a big deal
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