Patent ID: 9675491
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: A61F

Claim:
1. A hallux valgus brace to be worn on a user's foot inside a shoe having a toe cap; comprising: a spring device comprising a flat spring extending between a spaced pair of junctions with an elongated lever arm and an abbreviated pry arm respectively; said pry arm being configured to be interposed between a users' big toe and index toe; said lever arm being configured to be disposed overlying at least one knuckle of the user's index toe, middle toe and fourth toe, such that said lever arm receives downward urging from the toe cap of the shoe; said pry arm and lever arm having at least two relative configurations relative to each other, an un-flexed configuration and a flexed configuration in which the flat spring not only supports the pry arm as a cantilevered arm but is also flexed in opposition to a restoration force to the un-flexed configuration due to a spring coefficient for the flat spring; wherein the un-flexed configuration is characterized by, prior to any flexing forces applied to said brace, the pry arm and lever arm defining an angle between each other representing an open extreme; wherein the flexed configuration is characterized by the application of a flexing force between the pry arm and lever arm to close the angle representing the open extreme of the un-flexed configuration to an angle representing a flexed angle for the flexed configuration, with the pry arm interposed between the big toe and index toe, and with the shoe's toe cap urging down the lever arm which in turn urges down on the at least one knuckle of the user's index toe, middle toe and fourth toe; and wherein, because of the restoration force due to the spring coefficient of the flat spring, the pry arm applies an inward restoring force against the big toe as a result of seeking to restore said brace to the un-flexed configuration.