People  suffering from Tennis Elbow are commonly advised and prescribed to get and wear a Tennis Elbow splint or brace.

There is a big market for braces and many types and brands to choose from. However, there is only one good reason to wear a brace.

Why do doctors advise their patients to wear an elbow brace? 

Depending on whether the brace is used to immobilize the elbow or to support it while the arm is being actively use the theory is that a brace will limit irritation and further damage to the tendon structure attaching to the Lateral Epicondilytis.

If one chooses to think about lateral elbow tendonitis like this, then wearing a brace or sling or splint should keep things from getting worse and make things better. Unfortunately, this rarely turns out to be the case.

Many people ongoingly wear elbow support for months, and even years. This doesn't sound to me like an effective method to get rid of Tennis Elbow. It sounds instead like a method to prolong the problem.

Stopping some or all activity of the arm does not help tendonitis. It certainly is not a cure or a fix for it. And yet, elbow braces are commonly prescribed by doctors and suggested by other health care practitioners.

Why don't elbow braces help Tennis Elbow?

Braces are designed to either immobilize the elbow, or to give it support while a person uses their arm for a variety of activities.

The problem with this is that there are many factors and variables that go into the creation of and the progression of tendonitis at the elbow. It is not just movement, or just too much movement.

Splints and braces target only a single factor. And it's not even the most important factor. So wearing one may feel like it is helping, it may even help your body reduce the amount of pain you feel for a while, but it is in fact just prolonging your suffering and may not even be slowing the progression of the Pain Causing Dynamic, even though it might feel like it is.

The 1 and only reason to wear an elbow brace.

In my professional opinion, the only reason to wear an elbow splint is, for a very short term of no more than a week, to help reduce the negative factor of use and overuse of the arm structure while you are using the RIGHT tools to reverse the Tennis Elbow dynamic.

Meaning that the brace is selectively used to reduce on negative factor while you use other tools to reduce other negative factors and help your body heal itself.

If you find yourself wearing a brace for more than two weeks, realize that you are going down the wrong treatment path. Even severe Tennis Elbow should be feeling significantly better after a week when helped the RIGHT way.

Relying on a splint is a sure sign you are just prolonging your suffering. Splints can help to a degree, but they are not a cure, and they will not reverse the dynamic that is causing your pain.