Custom orthotics are individually crafted shoe inserts that protect deformed, painful, or dysfunctional feet. Your foot doctor also may recommend customized shoes. However, before choosing custom orthotics, you must know the types of orthotics available and their function.
Let’s talk about how you can choose custom orthotics perfectly suited to your foot and ankle condition and where you can go in San Antonio, TX, for comprehensive foot care.
Types of Custom Orthotics
Custom orthotics fit your specific foot shape. These inserts are worn inside your everyday shoes. These may be partial (covering just the heel) or complete (contacting the entire bottom of the foot).
There are three basic types of customized shoe inserts. They are:
- Rigid, made from carbon fiber or other stiff material to protect the foot and control its motion
- Semi-rigid, constructed from a combination of soft and hard materials to help the balance and coordination a sports participant needs to perform effectively and safely
- Soft, composed of materials which absorb shock and protect wounds and painful areas of the feet (suitable for the diabetic foot)
How Do You and Your Foot Doctor Choose Your Orthotics?
Before visiting a foot doctor, think carefully about your foot and ankle concerns, such as “Do you have pain during certain activities or foot positions? What if anything relieves them?”.
During your visit, your foot doctor will discuss your foot and ankle symptoms and the activities you are routinely involved in. Also, he will review your medical history and do a computerized gait analysis. This sophisticated assessment reveals balance issues, gait problems, areas of deformity, and more.
With these findings, you and your podiatrist will determine if orthotics are your best treatment. If so, you’ll discuss what kind of shoe inserts are right for you and your lifestyle. He will take impressions (casts) or three-dimensional images of your feet. These will help the podiatrist design and construct your inserts, so they just fit right and accomplish the purpose you and your foot doctor wish to achieve.
How to Choose Your Custom Orthotics?
Finally, remember that shoe inserts are an easy, effective treatment. They help avoid more invasive strategies, such as surgery. This should motivate you to wear them as prescribed.
Harvard Health reports that most individuals who wear their custom orthotics consistently achieve the therapeutic outcomes they desire. You, too, can have the foot comfort, function, and structure you need. Please learn more about custom shoe orthotics and what they could do for you.
The Podiatry Group of South Texas Provides State of The Art Foot and Ankle Care
Our seven board-certified podiatrists provide the latest in-office treatments, surgeries, sports medicine services, and diabetic foot care to serve your foot and ankle needs. We have seven comfortable, welcoming clinics in the South Texas area: Uvalde, San Antonio, Kenedy, Hondo, Boerne, Floresville, and Live Oak. There’s one near you!
Select one of our locations, and call us for a consultation. Or, book a visit online through our webpage. We will be happy to tell you all about custom orthotics.
