Every time you look into a product, you’ll have several considerations before buying. This includes price, brand, sometimes the extra offers like discounts and freebies, and the customer rating and reviews. When faced with attractive offers, we often forget to ask ourselves, “Are these the products we need?”
Let this situation be different when it comes to choosing ankle protection and ankle injury support products. In this case, you should always determine whether the specific product is really what you need to ensure pain-free runs and walks and healthy feet. Check out these facts about plastic foot braces so you are armed with knowledge the next time you go ankle support shopping.
Plastic Ankle Brace Explained
When looking for ankle support, you’ll be faced with several designs, with plastic materials and expandable cloth-like sleeves. Picking the wrong one that doesn’t fully support your ankle needs can mean painful ankle and slow healing of your sprain.
If you are looking for a product that will ensure your ankle won’t move, an ankle brace with plastic sides is an excellent choice. Sleeves can provide ankle compression, but the movement is retained, unlike a sturdy plastic foot brace, which keeps movement to a minimum.
The Different Plastic Brace Variations
Now that we’ve narrowed down your product choices into the plastic ankle support brace, we can go further with your options by checking different plastic support brace designs. It will help you pick the best product for your needs.
Preventive and Supportive Ankle Brace
Do you love playing sports? Are basketball courts, football fields, and gyms your go-to places to sweat and enjoy your free time? Then, make sure to wear the proper sports or workout attire—remember that this also includes different protective gear to guard your body against rough play.
For starters, pick preventive and supportive ankle braces made of thermoplastic resin. When in use, this effectively covers and protects the heels, ankles, and tendons—the parts of the feet most prone to injury. The advantage of wearing these ankle braces is that they do not inhibit your feet and ankle movement. You can adjust the laces or straps according to your comfortability, and they will give your feet enough protection from impact and pressure caused by strenuous activities.
Stirrup Ankle Brace
You can use the stirrup ankle brace barefoot or over your socks before you wear shoes. The design has two long plastic shells on both sides of the ankle, tendon, and lower part of the calf. There are also gels and air pads that will serve as cold compression and cushion to the feet attached. Just adjust the straps for a comfortable fit.
The main advantage of using this kind of brace is the pain relief from the cold gel. It will be helpful to reduce the swelling in your ankle or tendon to make movement and daily activities more comfortable. However, there is no strap around the ankle joint, so be careful as there is a possible risk of the brace moving when barefoot.
Walking Boots Brace
From preventive braces to those which can relieve sprains and strains, we move on to the support brace for post-injury and post-operative support. While daily activities and sports can cause a sprain, accidents may bring broken ankles or fractures. In this case, consulting an orthopedist is a must so that you can receive necessary care. If surgery is needed, you can note walking boots brace as ankle support after surgery if your doctor hasn't recommended it yet.
These braces have the first layer of cushion splint you can wrap around your feet, then another layer of plastic brace for more stability. It will serve as your shoes as the boots are also designed with walking outsoles.
When to Use Plastic Foot Brace
After seeing the different types of ankle brace with plastic stays, you can utilize each of them in preventing and addressing any of the following foot conditions.
Ankle Sprain
A wrong fall that twisted your ankle is a common cause of ankle sprains. Because of this, you may experience pain and swelling around the ankles. You can treat this minor injury at home by giving it a rest, using compression, and applying ice on it. With that, you’ll find a stirrup ankle brace helpful. It will inhibit ankle movement, provide compression, and cool the swollen area at the same time.
Achilles Tendinitis
Aside from your ankles, you can also utilize the hard plastic ankle brace to inhibit the movement of the tendons and keep your Achilles tendinitis from worsening. Achilles tendinitis is the pain of the tendon connecting the heel bone to the calf. The pain may worsen when the heel moves up and down or the ankles left and right. Use any ankle braces and supports above to keep the feet from moving and let the swollen tendon heal.
Ankle Stress and Major Fractures
Keep yourself from suffering stress and major fractures, especially in sports like football, track and field, gymnastics, or soccer, by wearing an ankle brace before training and games. If unfortunately, you still experience stress fractures, the braces can also help keep your ankle in minimal movement so the hairline fractures can heal. Use the more sturdy and robust brace-like ankle boots for double-layer support.
Plantar Fasciitis
Do you often feel pain in your heels after a long walk or playing sports? It must be plantar fasciitis or the swelling of the plantar fascia—the tissue located in your heels. While this can occur separately, it can also be caused by different ankle conditions, so using a plastic ankle brace will help. Plastic ankle braces also provide support and protection from pressure to the heels as much as it ensures the ankles are compressed and protected from injuries.
Benefits of Using Plastic Ankle Support Foot Brace
Plastic braces offer much more benefits aside from assisting you with ankle pains and other foot problems. This will make you choose them over athletic tapes and other ankle compression products.
Convenient to put on
You do not have to replace athletic tapes repeatedly. Skip the hassle of wrapping your feet with it and use plastic branches instead. You can also save some bucks by replenishing your tape supplies often. Both products aim to provide compression to your ankles and keep it safe from injury, but an ankle-foot brace is more convenient to put on.
Provides most stability
Skip the regular socks or even the sleeves. If you are into strenuous exercises and activities, you can get the most stable support from a plastic brace. If you choose the design that wraps your ankle on the sides and around them, you'll get better compression. If you wish to keep the ankles from moving sideways, you can choose stirrups to ensure your ankles will not move sideways.
Can be tightened as needed
Whether you choose the strapped or laced plastic braces, you can tighten them as needed. Just a tip—make sure not to make the wrap too tight as it can inhibit proper blood circulation in the area and cause it to be numb. On the other hand, do not bind your ankles too loose, and the compression and protection needed will not be achieved. Just ensure that the compression is enough to ensure that if you have a bad fall, the ankle will not twist as badly as without any ankle support.
Use of warm or cool inserts is possible.
Finally, aside from the compression you need when you do sports and errands, you can also use the plastic braces to let your ankle rest and relax at home. Level up the care you are giving an injured ankle; use the braces with cooling gel and air cushions. Lift your leg while your ankles are wrapped to inhibit the swelling.
Final Thoughts
After all these details, now you can make wiser decisions when faced with different products for your ankles. Make sure to know what your goal is first. Do you need to protect your ankles before a game proactively? Or, do you need to keep your ankles still so that the sprain or strain will heal quickly before you engage in another strenuous exercise? Then, check the different ankle brace types to see which one will satisfy your needs. Generally, all braces have great features, but they only become the best when they provide the ankle support and protection you need.
July 19, 2022
