MooreBalanceAFO@yahoo.com
MBB Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy for Fall Prevention
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MBB can help prevent falls?
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Moore Balance Brace featured in Podiatry Management Magazine, 2011
MOORE BALANCE BRACE
The first fall prevention AFO designed by a physician and made by one of the most respected labs in the country.
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Thank you for taking the time to visit this website dedicated to providing physicians and therapists the with the latest tools to prevent falls among our senior population. Although no one is naïve enough to think that a single brace or ankle foot orthosis (AFO) is going to be the answer for everyone at risk for falls, the concept has been around for a long time and many clinicians and therapist have employed this concept long before the MBB was created.
The bottom line is that there are a significant number of patients who walk into our offices everyday who have all of the indications for the MBB (ankle osteoarthritis, weakness, imbalance, neuropathy, ankle joint instability) yet nothing is offered to them. In fact, studies clearly show that most at risk for falls either do not know they are at risk or have never been given an option to help prevent a fall.
Although there have been AFO products that have been used and marketed (in part) as a fall prevention product, the Moore Balance Brace is first with this specific indication in mind. In addition, the MBB is unique in many ways.
Unique Design
The MBB was designed to be light weight, durable, easy to put on and also to allow for dorisflexion and plantarflexion during gait. These factors are critical in order to have success in getting seniors to wear an AFO.
2 Years in The Making
The MBB has been two years in the making and it is currently being studied using several standardized fall risk assessment tools along with the oversight of a certified occupational therapist, a podiatric physician and a certified orthotist. So far the results are amazing. Stay tuned to see our findings published soon.
Over the last 2 years, the MBB has been tried, modified, retried and fine tuned until the right design was established. It can be said now with certainty the MBB is the best AFO product on the market for fall prevention.
Easy To Fit, Easy To Wear
Lastly, the MBB is all about making it easy for the elderly. The MBB has been designed to easily fit into a variety of different shoes. Because the MBB is so light weight and due to its sleek design, the MBB is easy to wear.
The type of shoe used with MBB is important and should not be left to the patient alone to figure out. There are many light weight stable shoes that are options for seniors, but care needs to be taken to make sure that the MBB is not being used in a house shoe or slipper nor without shoes.
The National Safety Council estimates that persons over the age of 65 have the highest mortality rate (death rate) from injuries. Among older adults, injuries cause more deaths than either pneumonia or diabetes. Falls account for about one-half of the deaths due to injury in the elderly.
Several epidemiological studies have looked at the rate of falls in the elderly at home, in outpatient settings and institutions.
- Among 65 year-old women nearly one in three (30 percent) will fall; after age 85, over half of women will suffer a fall.
- For men, the proportion who fall increases from 13 percent in the 65 to 69 age group to a peak of 31 percent in the 80- to 84-year age group. For those over the age of 85 there is a slight decrease.
- It appears that for the elderly living at home one-third to one-half tend to fall or do fall. Those who are more aged, female, single, divorced or widowed have an increased rate of falling.
- In the younger, healthier elderly, environmental factors are more important, with stairs and floor obstacles being common causes of falls.
- For the older, sick elderly, falls are often associated with dizziness and syncope (brief loss of consciousness; "passing out"), cardiac and neurologic disease, poor health status and functional disability.
I hope that you decide to give the MBB a try. Need all of the compliance documentation for the MBB? It is all right here.
Need billing and coding help? It too is available on this website.
Need a simple, easy to use fall assessment template? Look no further than here.
Need a comprehensive brochure to inform patients? Its available as a free download here.
Have questions, feel free to email any questions you have to moorebalanceafo@yahoo.com
