If you’ve been struggling with pain:

• In your heel or forefoot
• At the ankle or knee
• Through the leg or shin
• During physical activity

 

Then there’s a chance that orthotics may be able to help fix the problem, or at least relieve a significant amount of pain to improve your quality of life. But how do orthotics work and how can they possibly work for so many problems?

 

Orthotics are all different and are tailored specifically for you and your foot problems.

Yep, that’s the key right there. That while term ‘orthotics’ or ‘orthoses’ denotes a ‘shoe insert’, the function and design of each patient’s orthotics are actually very different and are tailored to their pains, problems and the features they need to relieve pain, facilitate their recovery and help them feel great on their feet again.

 

Orthotics change the biomechanical functioning of the feet. This means that because of the way your foot makes contact with the surfaces of the orthotic (and any build-ups and cut-outs it may have that are put there specifically for you), your bones and tissues with move differently and your muscles will activate at different times throughout the gait cycle compared to what it was previously. This will reduce the stress and load on overworked muscles, reduce the high-pressure areas if you have any that need to be corrected, and generally allow the damaged areas and structures to heal.

 

Think of orthotics like glasses. Whether you’re short-sighted, long-sighted or whatever the problem, each pair of glasses is prescribed to perfectly suit your needs as per the results of your examination.

 

The Sole Motion Orthotic Difference

At Sole Motion, it’s important to us that you’re not just prescribed orthotics and left to navigate the rest of your recovery on your own. We stay with you every step of the way to make sure we’re seeing the results we both want, as well as working directly on your problem to stimulate and speed up the healing and repair process.

 

That’s why there are always two important steps to effectively using orthotics and treating pains:

1. Expert orthotic prescription + creation

This means that you get orthotics that are prescribed and designed by a podiatrist that specialises in sports medicine and foot biomechanics. Because the function of orthotics is determined by the prescribing Podiatrist, it’s important that this is their area of speciality and expertise. At Sole Motion Podiatry, sports medicine and effective rehabilitation of pains and injuries are our specialities. Because we see these problems day in and day out, we’ve adapted our techniques over the years to reflect what has produced the best results in the shortest timeframe for our patients.

 

2. Gold standard soft tissue rehab plan

Now that you have the excess pressure and overuse that led to the cause and continuation of your pain under control with your orthotics, it’s time to optimise the recovery process and work directly on the damaged area to stimulate healing and repair. We’re privileged to be able to do this via a number of treatment options here at Sole Motion Podiatry, ranging from laser therapy to neurostimulation to dry needling and muscle work.

 

This is particularly important for non-acute injuries that have been persisting for 1+ months, to restart the bodies immune and reparative response (which tend to become duller as injuries continue or are not treated effectively).

 

So, what’s the first step to recovery?

Before even thinking of orthotics or soft tissue rehab, the very first step is to come in for a biomechanical exam. In this appointment, we’ll perform a variety of clinical tests and get down to your diagnosis, the cause of your problem and any factors that are preventing it from getting better that we need to address. We’ll talk you through where to go from there and whether orthotics will have any benefit for you.

 

We’re proud to be the experts in sports medicine and injury rehabilitation, and have thousands of happy patients to prove it! If you want to see us in action, you can visit our Facebook or Instagram pages. To book an appointment, give us a call on 1300-FX-FEET.