This blog by Sydney Foot Solutions is about podiatry, health and your greater well being.
Sydney Foot Solutions are experts in alternative but effective ways to treat your feet, without invasive surgery or orthotics. The benefits to you are the elimination of pain, permanent physiological improvements to your body, and the ability to wear the footwear of your choice.
Natural Alternative To Custom Orthotics in Manly Vale
Sydney Foot Solutions have over 15 years experience treating feet without the use of orthotics. Our team offer a unique approach podiatry without the use of custom orthotics for patients in Sydney’s Northern Beaches – Manly Vale, Balgowlah, Fairlight, Queenscliff, Brookvale, North Manly, Freshwater, Curl Curl, Allambie Heights, North Balgowlah, Manly and surrounding suburbs.
What are custom orthotics?
Orthotics are custom insoles, designed to be worn in your shoes to relieve foot pain and are commonly used by podiatrists and health professionals for the treatment of heel pain and plantar fasciitis.
Would you like to fix your foot and heel pain without custom orthotics?
Well now you can at Sydney Foot Solutions we have worked with 1000s of clients over the last 15 years to fix their heel spurs, foot pain, heel pain, bunions, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, ball of foot pain, morton’s neuroma and clawed digits without having to use custom orthotics across Sydney. In fact over 93% of our patients come out of their custom innersoles & orthotics as a result of our treatment.
How are orthotics used to treat heel pain?
Heel pain is frequently caused by misalignment of the foot or stress on the muscles and tissue. Custom orthotics act to hold the foot in place, reducing this stress and essentially causing the foot to sit in the correct position by shaping it around the insole.
While foot orthotics may relieve heel pain while being worn, they rely on manually positioning the foot in place and do not assist in strengthening the muscles of the foot or correcting the misalignment that is the underlying cause of heel pain. This means that to be effective foot orthotics & orthotic innersoles must continue to be worn long term.
Why orthotics often don’t work:
Orthotics don’t fit into most shoes.
This is particularly an issue for females, the reality is that foot orthotics & custom innersoles are just too big and bulky to fit into anything that looks good. Even a flat shoe will struggle to have the depth to accommodate an orthotic innersole. Unless you’re willing and can wear runners all the time you may get very poor results through orthotic therapy because you don’t wear them often enough for them to be effective.
Orthotics must be worn all the time to be effective
On a weekly basis we have disappointed patients in our offices by telling them their foot orthotics aren’t working, because they aren’t wearing them enough. The reason that they aren’t wearing them enough is that they only fit in their gym shoes and of course most people can’t wear their gym shoes all the time. An orthotic only helps your ball of foot pain while you are wearing them, unfortunately this is often not explained properly to patients when they are first fitted. As a result the patient goes to a great deal of trouble and expense and gets a nasty shock down the track when they don’t get the results they expect.
Orthotics are a band-aid solution
Unfortunately orthotics only correct your foot while you’re wearing them, they don’t strengthen your foot or change your foot alignment long term. Custom orthotics don’t fix the underlying cause of your heel pain or foot problems, they don’t strengthen your foot long term and they don’t improve the posture of your foot the more you wear your innersoles.
What are the issues with orthotics?
While they are a common treatment option orthotics have a number of issues and restrictions such as:
- They require shoes to be deep enough and to be enclosed in order to hold the orthotics in place, meaning they are usually only appropriate for lace up, closed shoes
- Women find orthotics particularly challenging as they don’t fit many shoe styles, restricting footwear choices
- They don’t change the alignment of your foot long term, which means that in order to avoid pain, you have to stay in the orthotics forever
- They don’t strengthen your feet, so you never become self-reliant
- They can be hard and difficult to get used to
- They can blister the arch of the foot or rub uncomfortably
- They often require custom prescriptions which are costly to make. The prescription of your orthotics also often needs to be updated over time, creating additional expense.
How do I treat my foot problem long term without custom orthotics!
The first step to successful heel pain treatment is to assess and determine the underlying cause of the pain. By identifying the specific misalignment, stress or inflammation and which parts of your foot are affected, we can determine an effective treatment plan, that will provide ongoing relief.
The great news is you can, through a treatment called foot mobilisation therapy. Sydney Foot Solutions in Sydney’s Northern Beaches utilise foot mobilisation, hands-on technique that treats the alignment of the foot and in doing so, aims to treat the underlying cause of your pain, without the use of orthotics. It is a combination of hands-on techniques that change the alignment of the joints, stimulate the nervous system and strengthen the muscles that support those joints long term.
We then combine this with exercises to strengthen your foot long term so that your foot adopts this corrected position. The great news is that the changes address the underlying cause, providing a long term solution and allowing you to wear the shoes you normally wear while doing the things you love – and all without the use of foot orthotics and custom innersoles.
The benefits of foot mobilisation over custom orthotics are:
- Foot mobilisation therapy means no footwear restrictions, so you can keep wearing the shoes you love – unlike custom orthotics which may require specific shoes
- You can keep being active and exercising
- Improves the function of your feet
- Improves nervous system function and strengthens the muscles of your feet
- You can walk barefoot
- You have better balance
- It can improve your posture, and in some cases reducing the occurrence of related complications such as knee and hip pain
Contact us to book an appointment or call our Manly Vale clinic on (02) 8966 9300!
Orthotics Frequently Asked Questions:
How can I decrease my dependence on orthotics?
Foot mobilisation podiatry coaxes your feet and body back to health by encouraging the joints of your feet to move through their natural range of motion. This corrects the position of your feet with movement and provides permanent physiological improvements. Unlike orthotics, which only work when you wear them, foot mobilisation changes the structure of your feet so your condition continues to improve with time when combined with a stregthening program.
How does Foot Mobilisation Therapy work?
The treatment is a gentle series of movements through the joints of your feet guided by the podiatrist‘s hands in a controlled movement.
Is Foot Mobilisation Therapy painful?
Our patients say generally-no. Sometimes initial mobilisations may be uncomfortable due to restriction within a joint but generally, the treatment is pain free.
Is my activity restricted during treatment?
Generally, no. We actually encourage you to continue normal levels of activity. This allows us to monitor the treatment’s effectiveness.
How long do I have to continue the treatment for?
Our goal is to make you as self-sufficient as possible after the initial treatment period. The advantage is that we focus on the cause of your pain by improving the alignment of your joints, and strengthening the muscles supporting those joints rather than trying to accommodate the problem, as other styles of treatment do.
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