Adjusting Your Wrist Brace Correctly
Whatever reason you’re wearing a wrist brace for, there are some general bits of advice you should follow in getting the maximum benefit out of them.
First, make sure your wrist brace is the right size; ones you can buy at the drug store are usually specified as child, small, medium, large and extra large. These are generally measured by the circumference of the wrist they’re designed to go around and have a palm rest and a forearm length based on the average sized individual with that sized wrist. For 95% of people in the world, those wrist brace sizes are the right size. In cases where they aren’t the right size, it’s usually that they’re too small when wrapped around the forearm.
Then make certain that you are tightening them in a way that will not bother your injury. Wrist braces work by stopping you from accidentally moving your wrist in a way that will make your injury worse. How much you can be moving your wrist will depend on the extent of your injury.
Wrist braces designed to combat tendonitis should be tightened so that they prevent lateral motion of the wrist; if you hold your hand out straight from your wrist, the plane defined by your thumb and pinkie should be the dimension that your wrist’s motion is constrained within.
If you are dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome, you should limit the movement of your wrist from not bending downward whatsoever and upward by only a few degrees. You should make sure that you have appropriate padding in your wrist brace when managing carpal tunnel syndrome.
Wrist braces set up to immobilize the wrist for a sprain need to completely immobilize it in both planes of movement, and usually need to cover more of the upper forearm as well, since that’s where the ligaments that control wrist motion run, and may resemble Ace bandages more than a conventional wrist brace.
Remaining comfortable in a wrist brace will require you to look for things on the inside surface such as seams or loose thread that might rub against and bother your skin. A good idea is to wrap the hand and wrist and lower forearm in a bit of gauze before putting on the wrist brace. This will serve almost as a sock would in a shoe; it will soak up sweat and will prevent the seams from the brace from bothering your skin. You can keep your wrist brace clean just by washing it twice a week and most can be put in the washer or drying without issue.
Do not wear your wrist brace too tightly. It should fit snug; nevertheless, it should not stop the blood flow to the wrist or hand. Many people seem to pull the straps as tight as they will go, avoid this, just put it on, go about your day, and adjust the tightness as needed. A good thing to do is to mark with a permanent marker how tight the straps should go when you have found a comfortable spot.
Tom Nicholson has spent years helping sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome. You can click here to learn more about having asore wrist.
