What is the most important part of a prosthetic liner? Easy, the fit. It must fit well! The off the shelf options are staggering and work in most cases so that custom fits are rarely needed. Willow Wood has a slightly different take on custom prosthetic liners. While the size isn’t customized, the gel thickness and placement can be. Now that is pretty helpful in some cases. Say your amputation was the result of trauma which took a part of your muscle with it. This would leave a divot of soft tissue missing. Putting a little extra gel in that area would allow the liner to “normalize” the shape of your limb. This makes fitting the socket a much more comfortable proposition. In some cases, you might need both custom size and custom gel placement. I typically recommend Otto Bock or Evolution Industries for these situations, they both make great liners.
The liner, the foundation of your prosthesis, should never be casually selected. Be wary if your prosthetist seems to have a one-liner-fits-all approach. Your limb type, tissue type, and hand dexterity all need to be accounted for. Have questions about prosthetic liners? Shoot me a note.