Essential Difference: Teen Back Pain vs Adult Back Pain
Most low back pain advice is built on a reassuring foundation: the large majority of cases are non-specific, imaging rarely helps, and things generally improve with time and movement. That advice is sound for adults. Applied to a teenage athlete, it can miss something important. The difference isn’t subtle. It’s one of the more striking findings in sports medicine, and it changes what should happen when a young athlete reports back pain.