Confusion over dorsolumbar kyphosis and Sheuermann's disease has existed in the literature since the first recorded episodes in 1921. The present article delineates an etiology of back pain that is frequently seen in the adolescent population and is not to be confused with the painless fixed kyphotic deformity so frequently mentioned in the scoliosis literature. These patients with a painful dorsolumbar Sheuermann's disease may well have a traumatic herniation of the disk into the bony vertebral body. This type of x-ray and clinical finding should become familiar to all clinicians dealing with an adolescent population.