14 DAY TRIAL // Idiopathic scoliosis can be a nasty thing, leaving your spine permanently curved laterally or rotationally from sitting in a certain position for too long. Adults are even-tempered enough about wearing a brace to fix it, but the same can't be said about kids.
Children don't always understand or accept that they need to wear a normal brace, and take it off as soon as their parents take their eyes off them for even a second. This makes treatment ineffective, a lot of times.
For the most part, if the condition worsens the next step is a pretty invasive surgery. Not fun at all. That's why a better-looking, easier to overlook brace would be useful. The folks at 3D systems have now made one such brace.
Called Bespoke, the brace fits easily under clothing, making it seem as though you're not wearing the thing at all. It should curb bullying if nothing else, since the child will no longer be labeled a “freak.” Here's hoping, anyway.
Not that we can totally blame the kids themselves for not wanting to wear a brace for 2-3 years. They tend to be ugly as sin after all, and we all know that the young don't have the same discernment as adults.
So what was the solution proposed by 3D Systems? One that was developed in collaboration with Dr. James Policy, MD of Stanford University and Robert Jensen, CPO.
To start with, they fit a “check-socket” brace to a patient. Then they digitized it and created a reference underlay, which they adjusted until it perfectly fit the patient. The data was then taken and 3D printed on a selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printer.
So far, the device (if it can even be called that) has been tested on 22 patients at the Children’s Hospital of Oakland and was found both effective at correcting scoliosis and winning the kids over by not looking duck-ugly.
In fact, the kids all wanted the Bespoke brace when they saw the small, 3D printed scale model on Dr. Policy's desk. It was a positive reaction unlike any that he had seen from that age group before. It didn't hurt that the Bespoke was flexible in addition to thin. Not to mention comfortable to wear all day.
Technologically, it is, perhaps, a step down from exoskeletons that restore paraplegics' ability to walk, but the Bespoke brace isn't rendered any less useful because of it.