Pectus Carinatum – Complaints in Bracing

Transcript

One of the complaints that sometimes I get from adolescents is they don’t want to wear the brace at school. And that can limit the amount of time that they are actually wearing the brace. Obviously we counsel them that the longer they can wear the brace, the quicker their defect will be fixed. Sometimes if they wear it during the summertime, that’s a six week period, it’s over and done before they start the next school year. That’s an alternative for them. Some people can only wear it at night. So sometimes they feel uncomfortable with it. I had one child put a magnet on it and attach a superhero emblem to it so that it was like his shield. And he was able to get through his school day like that. He was obviously a younger child. So this can be worn underneath of clothing, and if the clothing is loose enough, it’s not really noticeable by other people. So that’s an alternative too. Obviously if this defect isn’t fixed or isn’t repaired, it’s going to continue to get a little bit larger, sometimes significantly so, and then once they become adults, really the only alternative for them to repair it is going to be an operation. And that’s something that they can decide on later on in life for themselves.