Specialist helps older patients

As people age, their need for various medical services increases. Such services can include orthotics and prosthetics.

According to Roger Marshall, the proprietior of Mercury Orthopedics in Bangor, “Orthotics means the practice of straightening out a problematic joint, such as a special brace applied to treat scoliosis.” Or, for example, a doctor might recommend an orthotic shoe insert for a patient with a foot problem. A knee injured from jogging might require a brace; so might an elbow slammed against a dashboard in an auto accident.

Prosthetics, on the other hand, “is the art of replacing a missing part of the body, a part that is normally there,” from teeth (dentures) to an artifical limb, Marshall said.

As a professional prosthetist and orthotist, Marshall knows the special medical conditions that can require older people to seek his assistance. Orthotics and prosthetics apply to all age groups, but particularly to older patients.

“The majority of the people we see tend to be older people. They’re not all retired, either,” Marshall said. “We see people of all ages, but I would say the largest percentage are 50 and above.”

For example, many older Americans who contracted polio as children are developing post-polio syndrome, in which the original symptoms reappear. Polio “weakens the muscles and the nervous system and accelerates the aging process in the affected areas,” Marshall said. When the syndrome appears, “the affected muscles begin to deteriorate; they grow older faster than the other muscles in the body. We’re seeing more patients coming back to rehabilitation centers to have braces fitted.”

He discussed prosthetics. Various medical conditions (auto accidents, industrial accidents, severe diabetes, vascular deficiencies, some cancers, even congenital deformities) can cost someone a toe, a finger, perhaps a limb. Modern medical technology can often replace a missing component with a functional alternative; that’s where a prosthetist plays an important role, in constructing an artificial limb to help a patient regain motor control and full use of the prosthetic.