Do you have a painful knee problem that takes you to physiotherapy…for an injury that hampers your daily living…your workout routine…or sporting activities?

Well, you’re not alone…

But the good news is that knee bracing combined with good physiotherapy exercises can help to lessen the degree of your pain and make it easier for you to start moving again.

Physicians and physical therapists commonly suggest knee bracing due to its effectiveness in addressing various knee issues. Getting knee braces is relatively easy and unobtrusive… but when do they even benefit?

Read on and know what kind of knee brace you can use and how it can benefit you.

When Can Knee Support Help?

Ah, that’s an interesting question and, frankly, one I get asked more often than you might imagine.

You can wear a knee brace if you’re looking to:

• Reduce pain
• Control swelling
• For a sprained knee, a ligament injury, or a torn meniscus, stabilize your knee afterwards.
• Tend to a recurrent musculoskeletal strain or overuse injury or osteoarthritis that has become aggravated.
• Reduce the possibility of an injury in your knee if it tends to be often injured.
• Help your knee to prevent your mobility from being restricted by pain.

5 Ways Knee Bracing And Physiotherapy Can Help Your Pain

1. Hinged Knee Brace for Pain

Knee bracing does help to decrease pain because it offers more support and immobilisation to that joint. A hinged knee brace may make you comfortable or relieve you of some worry. It can give a ‘swayless’ injured knee, the stability it needs when walking.

An improvement to the design is the use of a hinged knee brace with the use of plastic parts to support the knee when it is more acute or painful. This is the type of knee bracing I usually advise my physiotherapy patients to use because it offers them adequate support to continue with their activities in comfort and with pain as much as possible.r peace of mind, It can help a “wobbly” injured knee feel more stable when you walk.

Knee braces with hinges and plastic supports provide added support for acute or painful injuries. My physiotherapy patients often choose this type of knee bracing because it provides them with the support they need to keep moving.

On the other hand, if you feel pain below or around the kneecap, the function of the patellofemoral braces is to immobilise the kneecap to reduce the weight that lies directly on the kneecap.

It’s for this reason that if you use this type of brace in conjunction with certain physiotherapy exercises, your kneecap should track better and you shouldn’t feel this pain.

2. Compression Knee Bandage Support for Relief of Muscle Pain

In case your major issue is swelling, you will find that a compression knee bandage is ideal because it applies great pressure on the tissues around the knee to minimise swelling.

Some of the patients I have talked to really love this type of brace because it gives them more confidence in their knees. It helps their knee that is why – and it is also comfortable – to walk with them.

They are produced from a lightweight, air-permeable fabric, which is excellent for wearing for all kinds of day-to-day actions and sports.

3. Unloader Braces and Joint Mobilisations for PBOA Pain

Because people are living longer today, we’re seeing everyone from young adults ⚣ in their 40s or 50s getting knee pains from osteoarthritis from wear and tear from an active lifestyle, their job or daily activities.

Unloader braces work by taking your weight off the damaged area of your joint to relieve pain from osteoarthritis and decrease the knee pain from the bones rubbing directly against each other.

Instead, more recent research indicates that unloader knee braces and physiotherapy exercises decrease knee pain, increase activity and function, and may prevent surgery.

4. Adjustable Neoprene Knee Support

If you have an ACL tear or ligament injury, this Adjustable neoprene Knee support enhances stability in an unstable knee and lessens pain.   They assist in maintaining the stability of the knee joint and prevent pulling off of the knee ligaments to versions such as lateral or medial, side to side or forward-backwards motion. A couple of remarkable reports of studies have pointed out how knee bracing may also reduce your risk of additional injury or subsequent deterioration.

If you are settling back into the sport of your choice then you will need braces that can offer dynamic support and assist in the protection of the knee for/with sports that involve movement in any sharp angle or contact.

5. Patellar Tendon Knee Support

Naturally, it should be understood that patellar tendon knee support can only be performed to a certain extent.

Flexibility and strength do come in handy especially when it comes to minimising knee problems…But I do wish to stress that a knee brace helps ensure that you do not sit out your daily life in favour of the couch while you build up your strength.

No matter if you are suffering from ligament injury, meniscus tear or because of the bone on bone osteoarthritis the message that you get here is..

It’s possible to continue putting pressure on your knee even with a brace on…still, do not forget your physiotherapy if possible and keep your leg muscular!

Final Thoughts

Well, now all of that has been said what next…Which type of knee brace will suit you?

Always remember…always have to make out the type of brace you need, one has to decide what problem the brace will solve.

So…first, ask yourself this…

“Is my main problem pain? Swelling? Instability?  Arthritis?

It’s simple, right?

Yes, hopefully, it is…but don’t worry if it seems like a lot to take in at any of the stages. But let me tell you, There are literally lots of types of knee bracing out there and, you may also be struggling with more than one issue.