My grandmother, mother, sister, daughter, son and I all have scoliosis. I wore a brace for 4 years as a kid. From everything all the docs have told me, it develops during puberty/adolescence and once your bones have grown/fused, etc, that's it, that's your end result. Apparently, it's entirely possible to be diagnosed as adult, but that most of those cases had developed during childhood and were never diagnosed at that time. My son is 13, had a mild S-curve. The doc is absolutely not concerned at all because his upper body bones are done growing and according to him, the scoliosis won't get any worse than it is. My 10yr old daughter also has a mild curve and, since she still has a few years of growing to do, we have to keep an eye on it. She may still need some sort of corrective brace in the future, but for now, it's too mild to do anything. My 8 yr old isn't showing any signs of it yet, but it'll show up within the next few years, I'm sure. My back is pretty curvy (I've been told that I'd be an inch or two taller if my back were straight), but it doesn't really affect me. I know it's there, but you can't tell unless I tell you I have it. Then, you'd realize that "oh yeah, one shoulder is slightly higher and the other hip is slightly higher". I don't have any pain or anything. I do try to exercise and keep my posture straight and stand with my weight distributed evenly on both legs. I guess I'm more aware of my posture *because* of my scoliosis. I'm really hoping that I don't have the C-curve in my future, you know, the one that makes older folks hunch over as they age...
I'd definitely talk to a specialist - even if it's *just* to get more information about your situation.