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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Scoliosis is estimated to affect millions of people in the United States. Treatment for most involves braces or surgery but one Colorado doctor is taking a new approach.

Dr. Jane Leavell is one of only 18 doctors in the world taking an approach to fix scoliosis that doesn't involve braces or surgery and she is based out of Denver.

"Bracing has such a devastating effect on kids," Leavell said. "It's very devastating to their self esteem. Not only that, but more kids that brace actually go on to have surgery than those who do not so it's not effective."

Leavell said surgery is often times painful and must be done more than once.

"It's a major surgery. They make an incision from the bottom of the neck all the way down to the bottom of the low back," she said.

Instead Leavell uses therapy, exercise, and stretching.

"When a patient comes to the office we'll spend about a half an hour or so warming up their tissues, their ligaments, and their muscles. Then we adjust them, which is a chiropractic term where we get all of the bones in their body moving, so that the next part, which is the exercises, can move things effectively and straighten their spine," Leavell said.

Leavell calls her approach the Rhino Scoliosis Treatment which stands for Reduction, Hope, Innovation, and No bracing or surgery.

"Frequently a family comes in and they have a lot of anxiety from the diagnosis itself and they're told that things are only going to go downhill from where they are, the curve will only get bigger, and they are looking at bracing and surgery," Leavell said. "Families are desperate to find a solution that doesn't include those two options and that's what we provide."

Brittanie Vorwaller, a 15-year-old sophomore, said Leavell's approach was exactly what she was looking for. She was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 10.

"I had been in a scoliosis brace for two years and I still have scars on my back from it because it hurt so bad, like it was awful," Brittanie said. "I heard about this and I was just like oh my gosh sign me up as fast as possible because it sounded so much better."

Brittanie said her brace was painful both physically and emotionally.

"It was awful. Because it's like this plastic thing that you have to try to cover up because explaining to kids is really hard why you have this plastic armor on," Brittanie said.

Brittanie has been working with Leavell for almost a year now and she said she has seen major improvements.

"I'm in so much more less pain. I feel so good throughout the day. Sitting even in a chair was so painful and now I can go throughout the day and I don't even think about pain once," Brittanie said.

"She was not in the terrible pain all the time like she used to be so right there that was accomplishment for us," Adrienne Vorwaller, Brittanie's mom, said.

Adrienne said Leavell's approach also allowed her daughter to be able to do the things she wanted to do like play volleyball.

"Volleyball is her passion. She loves it. This gave her a chance to continue to play and that was huge for her," Adrienne said.

Brittanie will have to do exercises for the rest of her life but Leavell said it's a small price to pay for a brace free lifestyle.

"The sky is the limit. I can go wherever I want now, do whatever I want without having pain," Brittanie said. "Dr. Jane gave me a sense of hope that I'm not going to be stuck with scoliosis for the rest of my life, that I can go out and do everything else that everyone wants to do, and I can just live life."