Our Foot Care Blog
Our Foot Care Blog
An ongoing series of informative foot health articles
An ongoing series of informative foot health articles
5 Health Benefits of Custom Orthotics You Should Know
5 Health Benefits of Custom Orthotics You Should Know
February 2021
Experiencing foot or heel pain? The foot is a surprisingly complex structure, consisting of 26 bones and countless tiny blood vessels, muscles, tendons and ligaments. These all work together in tandem to support your body weight and establish balance as you walk. Any alterations in the makeup of your foot, or adjusting the way you walk, can cause pain in your foot and other joints—often leading to chronic health problems.
Custom made orthotics can be worn inside your shoes to help improve foot alignment and fix any biomechanical imbalance that can be experienced during day-to-day movement or even during sports performance. The main intention of custom orthotics is preventative maintenance for a chronic condition, keeping the bone in the anatomically correct position—and ultimately relieving problematic pain or pressure points.
At the Oakville Hospital Footcare & Orthotic Centre, you can expect one of our six chiropodists to give your feet the care and expertise, they deserve. Welcoming patients for over 30 years, the hospital owned and operated centre offers a wide variety of services, such as foot assessments, nail care, diabetic and arthritis foot care and of course—custom orthotics— to help patients live a more active, pain-free life.
If you’re considering custom orthotics, here are the top five health benefits you can expect from regular orthotic wear:
1. Custom orthotics are specifically created and designed to provide support to all three anatomical arches within the foot, providing long lasting pain relief. While you may consider over-the-counter shoe inserts, custom orthotics are designed to form to your feet for enhanced balance and overall stability support. Better yet, with regular wear, they’ll help correct any misalignments that may be causing you pain and let you get back to your daily active lifestyle.
2 . Do you often find yourself complaining about chronic and debilitating foot or joint pain? At Oakville Hospital Footcare and Orthotic Centre, we’ll work with you to address your pain points and get to the root problem. Custom orthotics can be an extremely useful tool to adjust the foot into the anatomically correct position, relieving the pain points caused from a lack of support. While it takes regular wear and time, custom orthotics can help relieve the pain for good—you’ll never look back.
3. One surprising benefit of custom made orthotics is increased athletic performance, thanks in part to a few key factors. When wearing orthotics specifically designed for your foot and sports preference, we ensure the majority of the force load on the foot is relieved, which leads to more precise movement and enhanced balance. Depending on the sport, your orthotics can be designed out of a material that allows for shock absorbency, which helps reduce muscle fatigue and increases range of motion and control.
4. One of the most common uses of custom made orthotics is correcting problems of the arch. Often, patients seek out pain management for pronation, which is the collapsed arches of the feet, or supination, someone with very high arches. Both conditions can cause long term health problems, such as joint pain or strain in the knees, hips, lower back and of course—the feet. Wearing custom orthotics provides the proper arch support your feet requires, relieving all the other joints in the body, often eliminating long term pain that can become chronic without orthotics.
5. Regardless of age or daily movement, our feet are one of our most used muscle groups. As such, foot-related injuries are also one of the most common injuries seen in emergency rooms. According to recent research, custom orthotics were found to reduce the risk of injuries by 28%, as well as reduced the risk of stress fractures by 41%—thanks to their ability to keep the foot in the anatomically correct position, reducing the stress on the overall bone structure and muscle groups. Furthermore, smaller everyday pain or injuries in the joints often lead to restless sleep, reduced mobility and an inactive lifestyle. Custom orthotics not only work to relieve pain, but can also be a great injury prevention tool for an overall healthy and happy lifestyle.
Ready to get fitted for your custom orthotics today? Contact our knowledgeable staff to book an appointment!
Call us at: 905 338 4669 or 905 618 0162, or email any questions to chiropody@haltonhealthcare.com.
