Orthotics are custom made shoe inserts designed to treat biomechanical foot disorders. Your bones and joints are like a stack of blocks, held up by muscles, tendons and ligaments. Gravity acts on the blocks with each step. When the bottom block is out of balance, the whole stack falls. Your foot is the bottom block.
Greenwich Sports Medicine offers casting in the only true custom dynamic orthotic device. Sole Supports technology offers a common sense, clear method of looking at, and restoring equilibrium to the bottom block.
These inserts help neutralize the effect of gravity at its interface with the ground. In doing this, we can finally attack the underlying cause of many biomechanical imbalances in the lower extremity and throughout the body.
With poor foot mechanics, the wrong muscles contract during walking and running or they contract out of their proper, critical sequence. Your muscles and tendons eventually fatigue and break down. This causes microscopic tears. This triggers inflammation leading to swelling, pain and scarring in these tissues. Also, your joints may suffer excess wear leading to inflammation and possibly degeneration. Consequently, pain and dysfunction may arise in your feet, ankles, legs, knees, thighs, hips, low back, and further up your body.
Orthotics are made to help the foot move properly and support the weight of the body so that the foot can move with less effort and fatigue.
Before we decide that you need a pair of orthotics, a detailed gait analysis and study of the way your foot functions with walking and standing will be performed, the joint ranges of motion are evaluated in order to determine where the foot imbalances exist. If you will benefit from orthotics, a cast will be taken of each foot and sent to the lab, where a custom made orthotic is created that incorporates the necessary corrections. These corrective devices will provide you with the support, stability, cushioning and alignment necessary to keep your feet, ankles and lower body comfortable, healthy and pain-free.
Benefits of Orthotics
· Reduce hip, knee and ankle pain
· Decrease low back pain
· Decrease heel pain and pain associated with bunions
· Reduce pain associated with calluses
· Reduce plantar fascitis
· Decrease or eliminate arch pain
· Reduce the feeling of tired/achy feet
· Prevent the progression of many foot problems