Could You Benefit From Custom Foot Orthotics?
Has someone mentioned a custom orthotic might be helpful for you? Or are you having foot, ankle, or knee pain that just isn't going away? This week’s video focuses on what a custom orthotic is, who it might be good for, and what tests we do to figure out if someone's a good candidate.
Have a look below and if you think you might benefit, book a free 15 minute consult with Dr. Freedman or mention it at your next visit.
I'm Dr. Jody Freedman, a chiropractor at Willowbrook Chiropractic here in Langley, and also an orthotics provider. Today I'm going to talk about what a custom orthotic is, who it might be good for, and what we do inside the office to be able to determine whether someone's a good candidate.
I've been making orthotics for almost 20 years, and the way I explain it is that it's basically an insole that goes in your shoe that is custom-made for you. When we look at the insoles that come out of a typical shoe, it's just a floppy piece of foam or leather. It doesn't really give you much support inside the heel or through the arch at all.
When you look at a step-up, we might look at an insole that would come from a sporting goods store and cost maybe fifty or sixty dollars. It'll have a little bit more of an arch support. It'll have a little bit better foam quality, but it's really not designed specifically for your foot. So it's kind of hit or miss whether it's going to be helpful for you.
A custom orthotic can usually be better in three different ways:
Because it's made from a mold of your foot, it really is designed for the specific contours of your foot so it tends to be a better fit.
Because it's made from scratch, the options are limitless in terms of the things we want to do with the orthotic. If we want the heel to be a little bit wider, we can make it wider. If we want the arch to be a little bit longer, we can make it longer. If we want the arch to be a little bit higher or lower, we can modify that as well. We can also adjust how much support we actually have through the top cover as well.
If we have specific conditions, we can actually make modifications that can be helpful for that condition. For instance, for something like plantar fasciitis, we might actually add a little bit of support inside the heel to be able to offload some of the pressure there. If we have something like forefoot pain or metatarsalgia, we might actually add some extra cushioning through the forefoot to be able to offload the pressure there as well. Or if we have something like knee pain, we might give a little bit more support through the heel and through the arch so we can offload some of the pressure going up into the knee and creating pain there.
There's another group of people that I think really can benefit from orthotics, and those are my low back pain patients.
What I find is especially those that are on unforgiving surfaces for long periods of time. I'm thinking of my nurses, my care aides, my construction workers, and my warehouse workers. Really those unforgiving surfaces are really not helping them much over those 8, 10, 12 hour shifts. And what we find is that the forces from the ground end up just going into the legs and up into the low back and creating a lot of low back pain for them.
The actual flex of the orthotic dissipates some of that stress from the ground, and they end up feeling a lot more refreshed after their long shift.
How we assess for orthotics:
We start off with a thorough history. We really want to know where your pain is, how long it's been there, and most importantly, what types of things it's keeping you from doing.
Next, we'll actually move into an exam of the foot, and so we'll look at the individual contours of your foot, what is moving, what is not, and really look to see if there are any areas that are showing particular areas of a lot of stress.
Next, we were fortunate enough to have a really nice long hallway so we could look at your gait and we can see if are you putting pressure on one portion of the foot more than another. Is that happening late in your gait phase or early on? And it gives us a lot of information about how we can best design an orthotic to support you.
How your shoes affect your problem:
The last piece that is really important is to actually look at your shoes. We're going to look at wear patterns in there, and we're really going to see whether the shoes are part of the solution or part of the problem.
I often tell people that we can take a good shoe and make it perfect with an orthotic, but we can't take a bad shoe and make it good with an orthotic. So a good shoe is a really important part of the process to make sure that we have a complete package there.
Casting your Foot:
If we've determined that you are actually a good candidate for orthotics, then we can actually do a casting, either using a foam box or a digital scanning tool.
We take that scan along with our specific instructions, we send that off to the lab, and about two weeks later they send the orthotics back for us to do a fitting appointment. There we're going to make sure that the orthotic actually fits properly inside your shoe. So for instance, if we've got a running shoe, we may have designed a longer orthotic that has a lot of cushioning because it fits nicely inside this shoe. If we had a dress shoe that we're trying to make an orthotic for, we don't really have quite as much space inside the forefoot, so we might do a shorter orthotic with not quite as much padding inside there that will actually fit just as well inside of a shoe like this here.
Making modifications to your orthotics:
Now, we usually get it right the first time, but if we need to make any modifications, either decrease some of the support inside the orthotic, or increase some of the support where there's an individual pressure point, we've got up to six months to make any modifications, send it back to the lab, and then do a refitting at that point.
Insurance Coverage:
Most insurance plans cover custom orthotics, and if you'd like to do a pre-authorization, we're always happy to send that form off for you.
Getting Assessed for Custom Orthotics:
If you have any questions or if you're wondering if you would be a good candidate for orthotics, I encourage you to book a free 15-minute consult with me below or by calling the office.
If you have already been prescribed orthotics or benefited from them in the past, go ahead and book an initial exam. We’ll get you fitted as soon as possible.
