Orthotics can help your feet…and more
The advantages of prescription foot orthoses are
many. First of all, they are custom made for each foot
of each patient, so each foot orthosis will only fit one
foot correctly. In addition, since they fit exactly to the
person's foot they can be made with relatively rigid,
durable materials with a minimal chance of discomfort or irritation to the patient's foot. Prescription foot
orthoses also have a much greater potential to effecDR. THOMAS
GRAZIANO tively and permanently treat painful conditions, all
the way from the toes to the lower back, since they are
designed specifically for an individual's biomechanical nature.
Biomechanics is a specialized branch of science that uses the
mechanical principles of physics to study the motions and forces on
the human body. As those charged with the treatment of the lower
extremity, we receive specialized, in-depth training during our four
years of medical training about how the movements and forces in
the lower extremity affect the movements and forces in the foot. No
other medical specialty has in-depth training, which is necessary to
understand lower extremity pathology as it relates to the biomechanics of foot function. Therefore the podiatrist is the most
qualified medical specialist to diagnose and treat foot pathology.
So how do prescription foot orthoses benefit our patients? In the
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normal gait cycle, the foot should pronate or “flatten out” slightly to
accept the uneven terrain of the ground. It should then supinate or
become more rigid to push off during gait. When a foot pronates or
supinates for too long, a period during the gait cycle, compensation
must take place and this degree of compensation can cause symptomology in the lower extremity from the lower back to the foot.
Custom orthotics control the degree of supination and pronation,
thereby limiting the amount of compensation. In this way, they
relieve a patient's pain and discomfort.
Back problems and other common forms of chronic pain can
often be traced to foot imbalance. Orthotics re-position the foot to