Orthopedic Shoulder Brace

An orthopedic shoulder brace is a device that is used to treat shoulder injuries. Primarily it controls the movement of the shoulder so that it doesn’t move unnecessarily to prevent further injuries. This is really crucial since shoulder injury can be very painful for a person and keeping the shoulder intact ensures a faster recovery. Athletes are the most common people who use orthopedic shoulder braces as they are very prone to shoulder injuries. Nevertheless, shoulder injury can arise from ordinary tasks or events done improperly like incorrect sleeping position, rolling off the bed, or lifting an object that is too heavy .

Orthopedic shoulder braces is sometimes worn by athletes to protect themself from having injuries in their activities. While it doesn’t really make them invincible to shoulder dislocation or other injuries, it can effectively reduce the prevalence rate. However,  wearing orthopedic shoulder brace for athletes has a distinct disadvantage while playing or training as it does restrict body movement of the athlete resulting to severe decrease of their performance.

There are two different types of orthopedic shoulder braces. The first type is commonly known as thermal wraps. These shoulder braces features a heating and cooling mechanism that can help reduce the pain that commonly arises from repetitive or long term injuries. Most often these materials are made of neoprene since this can hold the required temperature better than other materials. A more costly type of orthopedic shoulder brace is a magnetic wrap. However, it only has a heating mechanism and doesn’t offer cooling unlike thermal wraps.

The second type of orthopedic shoulder braces are modern shoulder slings. It is an immobilizer that efficiently restricts  the movement of the shoulder to prevent further damage and injury. A modern shoulder sling is consisted of wraps that go around your chest, your wrist, and above your elbow. Modern shoulder slings lets your shoulder to rest making it more susceptible to recovery and healing.

Eventually,there's also another special type of orthopedic shoulder brace better known as the shoulder posture brace. Its main purpose is to correct posture problems and therefore it won’t help you that much when recovering from a shoulder injury.