A doctor may recommend wearing a back brace to the patients for healing the spinal fracture. The main purpose of using the brace is to offer the right support to the spine needed for letting the vertebra or vertebra heal. Now, many people doubt, how long to wear back brace for compression fracture. We’ll get the answer to it later in this article.
Compression fraction is a medical condition that happens due to the collapsed bones of the spine (vertebrate). The result of this will lead to loss of height, pain, poor posture, and many other symptoms.
The symptoms of which can be following;
- Lot of pressure on the spinal cord because of the poor body posture.
- Incontinence.
- Acute back pain that can turn chronic with time.
- Difficulty in moving around and walking.
- Tingling or Numbness in your limbs and other parts of your body.
The health condition during compression fraction due to back injuries is much painful. It can be more painful to deal with osteoporosis fractures while standing as compared to being lying down on the bed. Osteoporosis can cause loss of bone density and thinner bone tissues. Such fractures will lead to loss of 6 inches in body height due to vertebrae compression, development of a back hump (kyphosis), or lead you to stoop over.
So in case of the above symptoms you should move to a health care expert who can check and diagnose your problems via different means. An experienced doctor can suggest you either medications, supplements, therapy, bed rest, surgery, or a back brace!
How Long to Wear Back Brace for Compression Fracture?
If a compression fraction is happened due to an injury the recovery from it might take about 2-3 months depending on the recovery of your body. You should take plenty of bed rest and wear a back brace to get it solved quickly as possible.
You need to limit your activities or take maximum rest using a back brace to allow the fractured vertebrae to heal properly. At the same time, you can perform medication that will take of your pain.
The time a health care expert can recommend to you use a back brace also depends on how you wear it. So it is important to listen and properly follow whatever your doctor is instructing you on the right technique to wear a back brace.
To make it more effective, no doubt, you should wear one among the best Back Braces in the right manner. You might need to wear certain braces for all the day and night i.e. 24 hours especially those that are intended to be used for fractures. In some conditions, your doctor might fix a schedule for you to wear a back brace till you be used to it and feel comfortable.
5 Tips on Using Back Braces Efficiently
There are different types of braces available in the market. Generally, a semi-rigid or rigid back brace is used to treat vertebral compression fractures. It is useful for reducing micro-motions at the affected vertebral level or fracture. It is also useful for reducing the excess pressure bearing by the spinal column.
Tips 1: A back brace can fit tightly on its user so the chances of red spots on the skin are also common on the areas that are under pressure from the brace. In this situation, you also need to take good care of your skin by cleaning it regularly which will help prevent raw skin or blisters under the brace. You can daily wash your sensitive skin under the brace so that the dirt will not buildup. Baby wipes are also a good option to clean your skin anytime. You should also need to notice, whether your skin is looking pink for longer than half an hour. If it is then you need to discuss it with your doctor who might adjust your brace.
Tips 2: In case you are feeling much back pain to put on a back brace by yourself then you can ask for a helping hand from your family member or a friend.
Tips 3: It is a good idea to remove a back or a hip support brace from your body for a short interval of time to let your skin breathe well or to take a shower.
Tips 4: You can wear a tight, and clean shirt made up of 100% cotton under your back brace to avoid skin irritation. The short needs to be pulled down snugly and must not contain wrinkles.
Tips 5: Due to excess and continuous pressure the skin might become tough. So, rubbing alcohol can help much to avoid severe irritation or skin breakdown. Similarly, you need to make sure that the skin under the back brace should be dryer always as much as possible. A lot of moisture can lead to sores or irritation. Try to avoid using powders, lotions, creams on such areas of the skin. Instead, you can give a touch of cornstarch dusting on the skin on hot days or your skin does not support rubbing alcohol.
Final Thoughts
The best thing about the treatment of compression fracture of a spine is that you do not need to through surgery to deal with it. Yes, depending on your condition your doctor might recommend you to wear a back brace. The aim here is to treat the osteoporosis that might be the cause of the weakening or collapse of the bones, heal the fracture, and ease the pain. By regular use of such a brace, you can treat compression fractures in few months.
A back brace is just like wearing a cast that you need to use to treat a broken arm. So a back brace is designed from a rigid frame that won’t let your body move much and remove the pressure from the painful bone. Likewise, the injured vertebrae or the smaller bones that are responsible to form your spinal column can get the time to heal.
As per a study, a brace works well to ease the pain occurring due to compression fractures. Besides following the above tips on how long to wear back brace for compression fracture you need to be stay positive, and calm! Always do prefer to wear comfortable loose clothing to help the brace doing its purpose.
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