Orthotics
Orthotics are specially designed equipment that provide support to the feet and ankles to improve your lower body’s alignment. Since the body is all interconnected, misalignment at the feet can lead to compensation at the knees, hips, and lower back and contribute to pain and dysfunction in those areas. Thus, orthotics are a great tool to help correct this and alleviate pain and discomfort in the body. In this blog, we will go over how they work and how they can improve your quality of life.
1. Relieving Pain with Orthotics
Pain points in the feet
The biggest reason that people seek physiotherapy is to address either pain or discomfort somewhere in their body. Orthotics are invaluable help here as they offer targeted support to areas to relieve strain and pressure on joints, muscles, or ligaments. thus, they can redistribute weight more evenly across the foot and are most commonly used in conditions like plantar fasciitis or heel pain. Some individuals also choose to wear them for comfort.
2. Correcting biomechanical imbalances
Healthy foot vs flat foot
Flat foot and custom insole
Biomechanics is the study of how the body moves. Orthotics can play a big role in correcting these biomechanical imbalances such as overpronation as shown above, (flat feet, fallen arch or feet rolling in) or oversupination (high arches or the foot rolling outwards), which may cause a chain of effects through the rest of the body. Your physiotherapist may suggest orthotics to promote proper alignment, support the arch of the foot, and optimize foot positioning to reduce the risk of injuries and pain due to poor biomechanics.
3. Improve performance
For athletes and active individuals, orthotics can help improve your game. Additionally, the right pair can create small biomechanical advantages to create significant performance improvements by providing stability, decreasing energy expenditure, and preventing injuries. Moreover, they can be tailored to each athlete to suit their individual needs and maximize your potential.
4. Reduce postural strain with orthotics
Custom measuring
Poor posture can lead to significant problems from knee to back to neck pain. Additionally, postural correction exercises, orthotics can be a huge help with achieving optimal postures that minimize the amount of strain on the muscles and joints in an upright position. Thus, by ensuring the body has a proper base of support, orthotics help correct the optimal alignment of our body. In doing this you are minimizing the energy expenditure needed to maintain the position.
Orthotics offer a wide variety of benefits from reducing pain to correcting posture and imbalances. They are a great complement to physiotherapy treatment and are very popular due to their customizability. As shown below, orthotics are custom made for each individual using a foam imprint. This ensures that they will address your specific needs and fit perfectly.
Foam imprints for custom fit
If you are interested in getting a pair or are wondering whether if they may be the solution to your pain, contact PhysioNow today. We have many experienced physiotherapists that can conduct a postural and gait assessment on you to determine whether orthotics are right for you and which modifications to get. Book with PhysioNow today for your first assessment and treatment!
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