I have basal arthritis and need to immobilize my thumbs to reduce pain and inflammation.I tried several thumb supports available on Amazon and elsewhere. This one has none of the flaws that the others' have.Support: The brace along the thumb is pretty stiff, holding your thumb still when your not using it. But it will flex if you need to grab something. If you are typing, you can loosen the thumb strap, which of course gives you less support. Or you learn to whack the spacebar with a slightly different motion. Which brings me to:
Adjustable: Two Velcro straps control the pressure on your hand and wrist. A third controls the thumb tension. In no time you have this adjusted so it's comfortable to your needs. It works great on my moderately large hand. A really tiny hand might be a problem. I wear it while I sleep, and most of my waking day. Which leads to...
Comfort: I'm truly amazed. Of course I take it off to shower, or cook (don't want it smelling like raw fish). But unlike the PROLITE® PULL-ON THUMB SUPPORT, X-Large, Beige one that I tried, I can wear this all day. It's light, it breathes, and you can make it just as tight as you want.
I took all of my braces to an appointment with a hand specialist. This is the one he liked, also.
Now, this brace is perfect. I can wear it for hours with no numb thumb and no sweaty hands, and it allows me to work on the computer, drive, do anything I need to, and at the end of the day my pain is gone. Despite not being so long, it still limits wrist flexion (up and down) and completely prevents sideways movement in the wrist. The thumb strap can be very snug or very loose.
I only got one because thought I would use my old brace on the other hand, but this is so much better, I'll get a second one.The Mueller Thumb Stabilizer fits my wrist well and the 3 velcro adjustments allows good adjustments. It certainly has helped the reduce the pain from arthritis in the base of both my thumbs.
However, wearing them inhibits my ability to cook, type and many other movements involving my fingers as well as the stabilized thumbs. Using a laptop computer is almost impossible. As a woman with fairly small hands as well as fingers and thumbs that are not long, the "glove" portion fits far up and I can't bend my hand or the tip of my thumb. That means I wear it all night but take it off as soon as I start making breakfast. There's also irritation between my thumbs and index finger because of the thickness of the product.
The next problem I have is the superior velcro which keeps the stabilizer in place. It's practically impossible to pull apart when both thumbs are arthritic. The effort required to remove them causes more pain in the thumbs, so I tend to start the pulling process with my teeth yea, I know, yuck.
Overall, I decided on 4 stars because I've seen significant improvement despite the awkward fit on my hand. However, I will probably look for a smaller "female" oriented product.I was told that I have De Quervain's tenosynovitis as a result of overzealous one-handed leaf blowing this fall. So I purchased thumb support glove from my local Walmart. It is a bit cheaper, around $13.99. Even with 6% tax, it's still cheaper than Amazon and you don't have to wait for delivery.
This thumb support glove is just about perfect. It is black (for a nice cool look ;) ) and doesn't show dirt (I do wash it!). It has 3 velcro straps, one that straps in the thumb between the knuckle and joint. one near the bottom of my palm and one around the wrist. It as two long, very stiff support piece (probably metal) sown in. One support runs down the corner backside of the thumb, the other on the palmside. Both go all the way to the wrist. If I keep my thumb strapped in, it will keep the thumb-side of my hand completely immobilized. This is important for me as my pain isn't at the base of the thumb but starting at the wrist and travels a little up the forearm. My other thumb support glove only immobilize the thumb but do nothing for my wrist. I can feel intense pain if I rock hand from side to side.
I wear the glove 24-7 if I can. Whenever I wear my thumb "only" support glove sleeping, I wake up in terrible pain. With this glove, zero pain. It is comfortable and warm (bonus in winter!). I can do almost anything in it with some minor exceptions. Typing on a keyboard takes a bit of getting used but works. Like another reviewer said, you just have to move your thumb differently to press the space bar.
I gave this 5 stars but there is ONE problem with the glove. The bottom velcro strap at the wrist seems to be slightly different from the other two. Once it's been velcroed, it takes the strength of Hercules to un-velro it. It is even pulling up the little fibers from the strap. So now, I just keep it velcrored at the widest point. When I take the glove on and off, I unstrap the middle velcro and just slide my hand in and out. This also works well for me because if I make it too tight at the wrist, it pressure my pain points and makes it uncomfortable.
Overall, I love this glove and would have paid 3-4 times the amount to get the relief. I'm going to buy a second right away so that I can wear one while the other is in the wash. :DI got this brace for my wife whose DeQuervain's Tendonitis (New Mom Wrist) was the worst that her doctor had ever seen. It worked great and was really helping, but having to take it off and put it back on many times a day really wore out the velcro and it barely stays secured now and it's only been a month. Gonna try to find a similar one with better velcro
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