Bending the Rules

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The ton bending brace was developed in 1979. This particular

brace is designed to be worn only at night while the patient is

asleep. It is molded to conform to the wearer's body whle they are

bending toward the convex (rounded) side of the

curve " overcorrecting " the scoliosis. The theory is that

overcorrecting for eight hours a day might have the same effect as

correcting for twenty-three.

to understand how the brce works, think of a wall poster rolled into

a mailing tube for shipping... before framing the poster you have to

straiten it out, to do that you roll it the opposite

direction " overcorrecting " and the paper straitens out.

the charleston bending brace forces wearers to bend over to one side,

in the opposite direction from the way thier spine curve. it would be

extremely difficult to walk, sit, or stand in the position for any

length of time, but not difficult to sleep this way. some choose not

to wear a regular brace but throw fewer objections to wearing this

one at night

some physicians are skeptical that 8 hours a night can work, but the

national scoliosis foundation has reported " a preliminary study and

subsequent longer-term follow up of those using the nighttime bending

brace are encouraging " particularly for a single curve. to date there

hasn't been enough reliable long term research to prove weather the

charleston brace is " as effective as other braces "

-amber-