Why do we need so many choices in low temperature thermoplastic materials?

“If you could choose just one splinting material to cover all your splinting needs in the clinic, which one would it be?”

We get asked these type of questions all of the time. We are fortunate to have so many choices in splinting materials today because one material will simply not cover all of our splinting needs. We make rigid and strong anti-spasticity orthoses, as well as lightweight thumb supports. We fabricate long arm orthoses with materials possessing maximum resistance to stretch. We also make dorsally based hand and finger orthoses from very conforming materials. There is no splinting material which will satisfy every requirement we have. So we need to understand the properties, characteristics, and qualities of these low temperature thermoplastic materials in order to make the best choices in our orthotic fabrication.