{"id":144,"date":"2009-03-24T01:14:17","date_gmt":"2009-03-23T23:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=144"},"modified":"2011-11-04T01:38:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T23:38:29","slug":"cosmetic-glove-for-mechanical-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Cosmetic glove for prosthetic mechanical hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Otto Bock sells prosthetic cosmetic gloves for their mechanical hand. They are, however, not the only manufacturer of prosthetic cosmetic gloves. After researching the market I found that other companies offer very attractive products in the line of silicone gloves or silicone hand prosthesis. Typically, there is some sort of trade-off between availability, cost, appearance, functionality and durability.<\/p>\n

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First look<\/strong><\/p>\n

Otto Bock MyoSkin \/ MovoSkin (left: silicon glove) and a more sophisticated alternative product by Regal Prosthesis<\/a> (right: silicon glove).<\/p>\n

Otto Bock’s glove (left) features a transparent covering layer that appears to act as protective layer but is still rather sticky (makes it hard to slide into a sleeve) whereas the overall realism of the Regal glove (right) is apparent – veins, coloration, skin structure are a lot better.<\/p>\n

The Otto Bock product is relatively thin, the tips are not enforced; with such a thin glove one would expect it to offer better sliding properties when getting into a jacket. That glove is expensive and fragile at once; I accdentally damaged it rather soon (after about 8 weeks of wearing it). The Regal glove is now on my prosthetic hand since over 6 months and still showing no signs of wear and tear or discoloration.<\/p>\n

Both are shaped and sized to fit on my mechanical voluntary opening Otto Bock hand.<\/p>\n

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Prices can vary considerably. The cheapest price for a high quality cosmetic glove by Regal Prosthesis we found can be around 440CHF, the Otto Bock silicon glove are billed 650.35 CHF, and hand painted sophisticated gloves can cost as much as between 12’000 CHF (Orthtotop, Zuerich) or 41’000 CHF (very artistic French prosthesist).<\/p>\n

Extended use of cosmetic glove<\/strong><\/p>\n

PVC Otto Bock and Otto Bock Silicon-type glove both last about 2-3 months. The PVC then strongly discolorizes and the Silicon-type glove gets damaged mechanically as it is very thin. The Regal Prosthesis glove so far is under usage since > 6 months and no problems. It fits the Otto Bock hand very well.<\/p>\n

Cool Becker hand – red Becker hand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silicone gloves look great. But with a cold climate you put on and remove coats and pullovers all the time. So silicone really sticks to the sleeves. Also, I tear up silicone gloves relatively fast while PVC lasts longer. The only drawback is that PVC attracts dirt a bit fast – the kind of dirt that is hard or even impossible to remove.<\/p>\n

So I got Centri to make me a small series of custom red cosmetic gloves. Check it out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Other options<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prosthetic hand does not have to mimic a natural hand. It will never look and feel normal anyway so at one point in time one has to make that step towards acknowledging that.<\/p>\n