Wednesday 6 January 2016

For Best Orthotics Clinic Ottawa Is The Way To Go

By Jerry Stewart


Orthotics is a branch within the field of medicine. It is involved with the design, production, and application of orthoses. Orthoses are devices meant to modify the structural or functional characteristics of the skeletal and neuromuscular systems. Usually, they are applied externally. Orthotists are the medical specialists who specialize in the prescription, production, and management of orthoses. When one is in need of the best Orthotics clinic Ottawa should be among the first places to pay a visit to.

The functions of orthoses are diverse and vary with various factors. To start with, they are useful in immobilizing, guiding, and/or controlling body segments, joints, or extremities for given purposes. They control motion in a given direction in an organ. In addition, they assist in weight bearing.

The devices are useful for aiding in the rehabilitation process from injuries after casts have been removed. They can also be applied to reduce pain and accommodate or correct deformities. These devices are very important for ensuring independence on the part of patients because they can do activities on their own. They are usually applied for a limited period of time and in some cases, they may last an entire lifetime.

Orthotics uses knowledge from a wide number of fields including pathophysiology, anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and engineering among others. The fitting of these devices is necessitated by various medical conditions. Among them are injury of the spinal cord, stroke, and cerebral palsy. In some instanced, athletes use orthoses in optimizing performance in sports.

Many different types of orthoses are prescribed to patients today. Foot orthosis is one example, which is used for correcting various postural, foot, or leg problems. After surgery, support provision, pain reduction, and joint protection are done by Knee and Ankle orthosis. These orthoses also serve biomechanical goals and enhance rehabilitation. Positional and functional support to the upper limb is provided by Upper Limb orthosis.

Fracture orthoses are used as alternatives to fiberglass casts and plaster. Deformities and injuries in the spinal cord are corrected and controlled by spinal orthoses. Orthoses may be prefabricated or they may be custom made for specific patients. Custom made models are usually prescribed and designed on a case by case basis. Whether prefabricated or custom made, orthoses are specialized devices that need the skills of a specialist to be fitted.

Traditionally, orthoses used to be manufactured by following a tracing of the extremity so that a well-fitted device can be created. However, that changed when plastic was adopted as the preferred material of making the devices. Today, the industry heavily relies on creation of a plaster of Paris mold of organs to be fitted.

Production methods have undergone a lot of improvement with the rapid technological advancement. Three dimension printing is being used today in the production process along with CNC, CAM, and CAD machines. Besides plastic, other materials are also used to make the devices. Such materials include EVA, metals, carbon fibre, thermoplastics, and elastic.




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