Do I need orthotics? What kind? What’s the difference between pre-made and custom made and what exactly do they do? You have probably heard of someone who wears orthotics in their shoes or perhaps you have orthotics.

There are so many types of orthotics available; it is hard to know which you need. Some people buy orthotics from retail stores, some through various health professionals and others from podiatrists.

Some people get better, some don’t. There are some, which make all sorts of claims. What does the research actually say about how orthotics work? Most importantly how can you be informed on these issues? We can help!

Almost everyone has some structural biomechanical misalignment such as bowing of the lower legs, knock knees or legs that turn in or out.

  • Our bodies compensate for misalignments through the mobility in our joints and the flexibility and strength found in our muscles. Over time, this causes other adaptations and changes to occur to allow normal function.
  • These changes and other factors such as footwear, work, sports, age, weight and overall health status place stress on our musculoskeletal system.
  • When our body lacks sufficient compensation for a given activity, we place high forces through our body, which can lead to inflammation and pain.
  • This is when we need to find out if improving your body’s ability to compensate, by improving the muscle and function and/or reducing the abnormal forces usually by orthotics and/or footwear, is the best option.

But my pain just happened and is not going away…

Plantar faciitis

Any current pain may be just the most recent effect of an ongoing condition that has slowly been occurring over many years. Other such effects, such as muscle tightness and/ or weakness, or perhaps restriction of the movement in some of your joints, may be present, but as they haven’t directly caused you pain, you may not have noticed them.

It may have been an event, such a holiday with a large amount of walking, a growth phase (where the person’s bones grow quicker that their muscles) or even just wearing a pair of new shoes, which pushes the body’s ability to compensate beyond it’s limit and injury and inflammation occurs, causing the pain you feel.

At this point your body has two issues to deal with; first it has to continue compensating your structure and changes to allow you to still walk around, play sport, etc… The second issue is to offload the injured tissues so they can heal. Often this is too much and the pain continues.

To resolve this situation we have to either reduce the Compensation required or increase the Compensation Available.  Simple treatment of the symptoms can prove very effective in the short term, but if the biomechanical and structural irregularities and the resultant compensatory changes are not addressed, then a repeat of the inflammation and pain will most likely occur at a future date when another event occurs.

Please note:  this advice is very general and an accurate diagnosis on the function of your legs and feet can only be made after consulting a podiatrist.