Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)On a trip to Boston last year I found that I had neglected to pack my two braces. Being there only a few nights I tried to do without the first night and it was terrible. The following morning I picked up a pair of these at a well known three lettered drug store.
I have worn four different brands/types of braces for carpal tunnel. These are by far the most comfortable and worked better for me than any other brace I had tried.
I first thought that the little pillow that sits in the palm of your hand was more of a useless gimmick but I was quite surprised how effective it was. The difference in a nights sleep with these as opposed to the others I have worn was very obvious.
All the braces of this type utilize one or more metal and/or plastic supports to stiffen your wrist while you sleep. You may not realize it, but when you sleep your hands curl in at the wrist. For most folks this really does not cause a problem, however for people who have performed repetitive wrist movements over a number of years it can lead to serious discomfort.
The Carpal Tunnel is a sheath like tunnel in your wrist which has a main nerve (median nerve) to your hand going through it. The long term repetitive motions cause that sheath to thicken and in turn constricts the nerve when the wrist/hand is in certain positions; the above mentioned curled sleeping position is one of them. You wake up with your hand un-functional, tingling fingers or, as I experience, feeling as though your fingers are on fire and want to explode. It makes for a very long uncomfortable night indeed.
The purpose of the supports in the braces then is to inhibit the curling action of your wrist while you sleep. These braces have the usual beefy metal piece which is formed to the shape under your hand. However where I have always had the problem of the metal brace digging into my palm while I slept and my hand pushed against the brace, these little beany pillows have totally taken care of that. For this reason alone I love them.
Another great thing is that the brace fits either hand; no longer do you have to fish through the racks to try and find the correct hand.
The material is also very comfortable to wear; flexible and form fits around your arm and wrist wonderfully. Everything about these braces was well thought out - except for one thing.
THE BAD NEWS:
The Achilles' heel of these braces is in the fastening system. Like every brace of the this type I know of they use a hook and loop method to close around your wrist. The stiffer hook part of the fastening system however mates not to a sewn on strip of the loop material but to the brace itself. The outside of braces are made from two different materials; a stretchy ribbed piece for the top of the hand and a fuzzy fleece like piece for the underside of the hand. The hooked tabs lock onto this fuzzy part of the brace - quiet effectively at first but only after four months or so I started to see that where the hooked tabs mated to the brace body was beginning to fray which meant that they no longer held on as well. After a couple more months the hooked tapes would come loose during the night. To make it even more disappointing, on my wrist, the hooked tabs catch where there are a series of vent holes; the pulling loose of the material has exposed the inner shell of the brace and has me concerned that this will cause the braces to eventually tear here.
At this point the braces loosen up every night; the hooked tabs having less to grab no longer fit flush to the brace so they stick up a bit and detach when my hand just rubs up against something.
My wife and I have been examining the braces with the desire to attach a new strip of material for the hooks to bond to. The very small size of the hooks has made a bit of a challenge however to find something as effective. I hope that we can find something soon.
Although, at this price, the braces are for their effectiveness and comfort a great buy, and I do not regret purchasing them, the self destructive design is bothersome.THE BOTTOM LINE:
- They are half the price and twice as effective and comfortable as the prescription braces I had worn.
- They have got to come up with a better way of locking them on your wrist. The self destructive design makes them almost worthless after only a half a years nightly use.
K
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Futuro Wrist Support, Cushioning Beads, Adjust To Fit, 1 Wrist Brace
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