Foot supports are usually commonly used by podiatrists as well as other health professionals to manage a variety of problems that go wrong with the foot. They might be helpful to support the foot, to protect the foot and for cushioning all or part of the feet. They can be helpful to alter the movement of the foot for alignment concerns. In addition to the extensive variety of indications for foot orthoses, there’s also a wide variety of forms of foot orthotics which you can use. Foot orthotics range between the prefabricated to the customized with a quite wide variety of different materials to a great deal of flexibility with the types of components that the foot orthotics are made of. An expert clinician has to consider everything into account to work out what’s the ideal kind of foot orthotic with the right variety of design attributes with the proper material with the character and type of foot which the patient has got. There are numerous clinical assessments which the clinician may or might do to help make this decision.

Possibly the easiest think they look at may be the elevation of the arch. Could it be very low or is it higher or perhaps is it somewhere between and much more essential what does that mid-foot (arch) do between if the feet are up in the air and when the foot is wholly weightbearing on the ground. This will get factored into the clinical decision approach to making the decision about what is right for which foot. Another examination that is quite often used is the lunge test that measures the range of motion of the ankle joint whilst standing and lungeing towards a wall. The ankle joint range of flexion is definitely important with regards to foot orthoses because if the ankle ability to move is minimal, then that can probably suggest that the foot orthotic is either not likely to work too well or possibly is probably going to be uncomfortable. The lunge test will in most cases be done in the shoe with the foot orthosis to determine just how it functions. Should there be problems in the ankle joint, next stretching for the calf muscles may also be used together with the use of a heel lift. In the event the feet are flat, an additional check that is often carried out can be a test referred to as supination resistance test. For this clinical examination, the clinicians place their fingertips beneath the mid-foot (arch) of the foot and tries to lift it upwards, noting just how much resistance there exists to achieve this. In the event the supination resistance is high, then a lots of force from a rigid foot orthosis will probably be needed to correct that flat foot. In the event the supination resistance is low, then a soft flexible foot orthosis is all which will be necessary. This are simply a small number of the total range of assessments and observations that a clinician will consider if selecting the right foot orthotic for each individual foot.