Which table width does your practice need?

The table width is a trade-off between two opposing requirements: a narrow table lets you work close to the patient and protects your shoulders, while a wide one gives patients stability and room for side-lying positions and positioning aids. Because both matter, many of our models are configurable in several widths rather than fixed to one size.

Narrow or wide: the real trade-off

A narrow lying surface brings you closer to the patient's spine and joints, because the distance between your standing position and the treatment site is shorter. This shortens the lever through which you apply force, relieving your shoulders and back during forceful, joint-near techniques where you would otherwise have to bend or reach across the table. A wide lying surface works in the opposite direction and pursues a different goal: it gives the patient a noticeably greater sense of security, because arms and legs find comfortable room on the surface, and it supports side-lying positions as well as positioning material such as cushions or wedges without body parts hanging over the edge. These two qualities are not better or worse than each other, but a trade-off between two legitimate priorities that weigh differently depending on the focus of treatment. There is no compromise between these two poles that suits everyone: a medium width softens both effects but also does not reinforce either of them, which is why it suits broadly positioned practices that need to cover different techniques and patient types equally well.

In practice, the right width depends on several factors at once, not on a single one. The predominant treatment technique sets the first direction: those who work mainly manually and close to the joints tend to benefit from a narrower surface, while those who do a lot of positioning, mobilisation or treat larger patients tend to benefit from a wider one. The body dimensions of your typical patient group also play a role, as does the layout of the treatment room and the passage widths in your practice, through which the table must actually reach its intended location and be manoeuvred around comfortably once there. Because these factors rarely converge on a single optimal width, several of our models are configurable as a width range: you choose the same series with the same drive and the same equipment, but decide the width to match your focus, without having to switch to a different model. Accessories on the table also change the space actually available: if you regularly work with armrests or additional cushions, it makes sense to plan the width a little more generously, so that enough free surface remains for the treatment itself despite the accessories. In practices with several treatment rooms, it is also common not to order every table in the same width, but to match the width per room to its focus, for example a narrower table in the manual therapy room and a wider one in the room used for positioning and massage.

Widths and load capacity of our models

The table below groups our models by width, length and the load capacity approved by the manufacturer: where several models share the same combination, they appear together in a single row in the Models column, instead of repeating the same figures over and over. The table is sorted in ascending order by the narrowest width, and by length where the width is the same, live from our product database. Where the width column shows a range instead of a single value, this means the corresponding models can be ordered in several widths and the width is chosen in the configurator. We deliberately avoid numbers in the running text, because the table delivers the current figures more reliably than a snapshot in the text.

Decision guide

• Choose narrow if manual techniques involving body weight shape your daily work.
• Choose wide if you frequently work in side-lying positions or regularly use positioning aids.
• Choose wide if your patient group is more heavily built or a sense of security on the table is a concern.
• Check the passage widths in your practice before ordering, so the table actually reaches its intended location.

You should never decide the table width in isolation, but together with the height range and the drive of the table, because all three together determine your daily working posture. How to find the right height range is covered in our guide on working height, and which drive suits your location and patient frequency is covered in the comparison between electric and hydraulic. In the configurator you set width, height range and drive together and can request non-binding advice before you commit. If you are equipping several treatment rooms at once, a joint enquiry helps: we then coordinate width, height range and drive with you room by room instead of considering each table individually, and you keep an overview of your practice's overall equipment.