It seems everyone knows someone in high school who had to wear a brace to help with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that effects between one and 12% of the population, but is markedly prevalent in girls.

Depending on how severe the curve is, about 10% of teens with scoliosis will need some form of treatment. Some doctors opt to keep an eye on their patients, while others prescribe a brace to slow the curving. But a recent report in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library featured on Physorg.com reviews research that calls the effectiveness of bracing into question.

"'Bracing is regarded as effective by some and as useless by others,' says Stefano Negrini, M.D., the scientific director of the ISICO (Italian Scientific Spine Institute) in Milan.

Old-school braces were made from hard metal, but many of today's back braces -- like today's oral braces -- are made from a lighter plastic. Regardless, a back brace can really cramp a teen's style, as they often have to wear them for as long as 16 to 20 hours a day.

Teens with back braces are also plagued with a lot less mobility, which can in turn cause problems with sleep, social activities, and body image, and the emotional fallout that stems from those problems.

Some health care providers say, in certain cases, bracing is no more effective than the "wait-and-see" approach. But if the condition gets worse, the article says, "surgical fusion of the spine using rods might be the only alternative, a procedure that can cause potentially serious side effects, such as nerve damage and loss of mobility."

The effectiveness of brace wearing seems to relate directly to how often the patient wears the brace. "We are aware of the very good results it is possible to obtain with high-quality bracing and making sure there is good patient compliance with wearing the brace," says Negrini.

Another source in the piece, John Dormans, M.D., chief of orthopedic surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and president of the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America, is also an advocate of bracing. "If you polled the orthopedists who treat the vast majority of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the overwhelming opinion would be that bracing is effective, that it does alter the natural history of the disease," he says.

However, getting teenagers to actually wear braces is another issue. Dormans says, "There are studies that show big discrepancies between how many hours patients say they are wearing the brace and the hours they actually wear them."

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.