Belvidere Chiropractic Center Belvidere New Jersey Family Chiropractor Dr Jon Heins

Should You Be Wearing A Back Brace?

Should You Be Wearing A Back BraceIf this happens to be your first time here at BelvidereChiropractic.com, my loyal readers can tell you that back in January, I started an on going Frequently Asked Questions series. After a short break from it the last few of months in order to write these three posts: What Can Spring Cleaning Teach You About Your Health?Help Put an End to Blood Cancer, and What Is Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)?. And to announce last month’s Memorial Day Gift of Good Heath Special.

And, if you happened to be signed up to receive my free newsletter you even got a special early-bird announcement about The Special Memorial Gift of Good Health several days before the post even went out, so if you haven’t already, I encourage you to sign up today to get this free newsletter that is full of helpful information, special events, and any other future special offers. In addition, if you want to get this site’s posts as soon as they’re published and don’t want to wait to receive your newsletter, just subscribe to the RSS to email updates HERE or to the RSS feed in a reader HERE (See: What’s This?) and you can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN or YouTube.

Since my staff and I get a lot of questions from either our existing patients or people calling or e-mailing us through our contact page and we are happy to answer them for you. However, since many of you have the same or similar questions I have decided to write some posts on some of the more common questions we frequently get on a day to day basis about Chiropractic Care in general and the services we provide here at Belvidere Chiropractic Center and here’s another one we get quite a lot…

Should you be wearing a back brace?

Many of you who are suffering from lower back pain from things such as, disc herniations or degenerative disc disease consider the use of a back support. The first thing that you should ask yourself before considering wearing a back brace is if your back pain is in fact from either a disc injury or degenerative disc disease. Although disc injuries and degenerative disc disease are the most common causes of lower back pain, this can only be determined through a proper diagnosis by your family chiropractor or other licensed health care provider.

Once you are absolutely sure that you are suffering from a disc injury or have degenerative disc disease, you can then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a back brace with your family chiropractor or other licensed health care provider to help you cope with your condition as using a back brace may help you recover faster and much easier, but it will not cure you.

How can a back brace help?

A back brace can help you by providing additional support for your spine and muscles. By keeping your body in the proper posture, it will help by keeping pressure off your spinal nerves and since this is the reason why you are experiencing pain, it can help ease your pain.

Using a back support can also help you go through your regular or daily activities without straining your back too much or causing yourself pain. If you bend or lift frequently or have recurring back pain that flares up with use, proper bending and lifting, and wearing a back brace can help you prevent back injury and lesson painful flare-ups. Along with good lifting technique and using a back brace to help support your back will help you avoid injury. if you want more information on proper lifting technique see my previous post: How to Lift Properly to Reduce Back Injuries HERE.

How often should you wear a back brace?

It depends on whether they are in pain and what activities you are doing. The more pain you have, the more frequently you will want to use a brace. However, the only time you should wear a brace for extended periods of time is if you are currently in pain. The pain can be acute (sudden strong onset), or chronic in which the back hurts most of the time. A back brace can help you get through the day, even if you aren’t lifting much. Fortunately, acute pain doesn’t last too long. Once you are in a lower level of pain (or, perhaps pain-free), you will be able to use the brace less often.

After the acute pain has passed, use the brace “as needed.” It should be used when you are going to ask a lot of your back. An “on-again, off again” approach will keep you from getting tired of wearing the brace.

Once you’re completely out of pain, the brace should only be worn with any bending or lifting activities.

Wearing a back brace can be a very important pain-prevention strategy for those with acute or chronic back pain. People without a past history of pain should also use a back brace to support their back during heavy exertion as a preventive measure.

Are there disadvantages to using a back brace?

Like any form of treatment, using a back brace does have its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of using a back support is that it can bring about the weakness of your spine, if you wear it too excessively or rely on it too much. This can be easily avoidable if you do not rely on your back brace as a crutch.

Occasionally, patients say, it hurts more to wear a brace when they are in acute pain. If this happens to you, then the brace may not be for you at this time. Tell your family chiropractor or other licensed health care provider and don’t be afraid to try it again if he or she recommends it again once your at a different pain level.

If you want to wear a back brace, make sure to use it according to your family chiropractor’s or other licensed health care provider’s treatment plan. It would also be best if you try to develop and strengthen your spine through the proper exercise, if you want a more information on this see my previous post: How to Get the Zaz Back in Your Life HERE.

And don’t let a back brace fool you into a false sense of security and encourage you to lift with bad technique or lift more that usual. You must wear the brace and use proper lifting technique to achieve the greatest protection from injury, again if you want a more information on this, see my previous post: How to Lift Properly to Reduce Back Injuries HERE.

I hope you enjoy this continual FAQ series and would love it if you could suggest any other future FAQ’s simply by either, leaving a comment below, sending an e-mail via this site’s contact page, or by contacting through Twitter.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN or YouTube.

2 Responses to Should You Be Wearing A Back Brace?
  1. Dan Spinato
    July 2, 2011 | 11:40 am

    Back brace helps a lot even for people who just want to improve posture or those with minor back problems.

    • Dr Jon P Heins
      July 2, 2011 | 5:28 pm

      Dr. Spinato: thanks for the input! Yes a back brace can help a lot. However, they are not a panacea for all lower back conditions and should only be used under direct supervision of a doctor of chiropractic or other licensed healthcare professional who properly diagnosed what exactly is causing the lower back condition and not to be relied on to much as explained in the post.

About
Welcome to Belvidere Chiropractic Center, I'm Dr. Jon P. Heins Your Family Chiropractor. Where Generations of Your Family Are Cared For By Our Family. Serving All Generations of Your Family For Over 15 Years Now!Read More About Us »
css.php