Knee Support: How to choose the right one for you
There are more than 10 different types of knee supports on the market at this current time. This gives us a headache deciding which one should get. How one makes a choice for the appropriate knee support should depend on 2 major ‘type’ factors:
- Type of injury
- Type of sport that knee support required for
Knee support should not be for long term daily wear. This will weaken the muscles, making one very dependent on the support. It should use as a temporary measure to manage your discomfort until professional advice sought.
The best way to manage your knee discomfort is to see your physiotherapist for prescribed exercises that would be beneficial for you and to strengthen your knee.
Here is a simple guide to 5 of the more common types of knee supports.
Closed Patellar Support
This knee support generally uses to help control slight swelling and used for jogging or brisk walking. Commonly used with knee pain that is difficult to isolate the area of pain. However, due to its “closed” nature, it is not recommended for daily use if you’ve got to climb stairs or squatting.
This is because it would compress your knee cap (Patellar bone) against your thigh bone when your knee bent more than 45o thus increasing the risk of degeneration of the knee cap and increasing your pain.
Open Patellar Knee Support
Similar indication to the closed patellar knee support but this can be used for daily use as it doesn’t compress your knee cap. Recommended for people who have pain behind their knee cap with difficulty climbing stairs or squatting.
Hinged Support
Generally prescribed by orthopaedic surgeons or sports physicians for athletes with ligament damage that has been repaired to increase stability and to protect the ligament.
This is the ONLY type of support that worn every waking hour until advised to remove either by your surgeon or physiotherapist. This support however not allowed for most sports due to the metal parts of the support.
Adjustable Stabilizing Knee Support
This type of would be suitable for sports if there is no metal support. Normally recommended for athletes who have recovered; from ligament injuries and are just starting to go back to sports but still have a slight fear. Gives athletes a fair amount of support.
Patellar tendon knee support
Commonly for people who complain of pain over the patellar tendon on running or jumping. The purpose of this support is to; compress the patellar tendon to dissipate the strain across the whole tendon and thus decreases pain.
Experiencing knee pain? Find out more about physiotherapy for knee pain relief and how Core Concepts Singapore can help resolve your pain.