Custom Foot Orthotics for Foot,
Knee and Ankle Pain Relief in Naperville Bolingbrook Plainfield

#1 : Custom Orthotics Change your foot posture

If you suffer from any of the usual foot pains and deformities or even just foot fatigue, you want that to change, and the sooner the better!  With so many available “solutions” on the market for your feet. How do you know which ones are worthwhile? There is a big difference between things that give temporary relief and those that offer a permanent solution to whatever is ailing your feet. Painkiller medications alleviate pain, for instance, but eventually wear off and nothing has changed (and nobody  wants to take pills the rest of their lives). There are special pads and cushions you can get to avoid painful pressure spots, but these just shift more pressure somewhere else and can cause problems  there. There are over-the-counter arch supports, one size fits all, that may help a little temporarily –but  they really were not designed to help the unique shape of your foot. Even most of the typical custom foot orthotics dispensed in doctor’s offices do little more than what you can buy off the shelf at the drugstore. Why? Because, if they do not actually change your foot posture and function, the way you  walk, they are not changing anything important over the long haul.

Feet, like any other part of the body, depend on proper bone alignment and function to remain healthy and avoid arthritis. Thanks to gravity, body weight, sedentary living and the hard, flat floors of modern life, your arches are gradually  flattening over time. In fact, over 80% of all people are walking today with arches that are too flat. So, what if they are flat?  The arch is there for a very important purpose: it gives the foot a range of motion and function from nearly rigid (arch high) to floppy (arch low). Since most of us have too little arch as we stand and walk, that means our feet are too floppy and do not function the way they are supposed to.

When feet do not function properly, the weight-bearing forces of everyday life start to break down the  Soft tissues and joints of the foot. This leads to the very familiar problems of bunions, plantar fasciitis or heel spur, hammertoes, metatarsalgia, mortons neuroma or just plain achy, tired feet. The big toe joint,  more than any other joint in the foot, tends to develop arthritis. Many of these same complaints eventually require surgery to stop the pain.

Yet even surgery cannot restore healthy function to your foot –the most  it can do is temporarily relieve pain. Many of the ailments operated on come back over time because foot function was not addressed.  The only way to restore function to a flat foot is to use an orthotic that is designed to raise the arch back up to where it should be. Sole Supports™ are the only medical grade orthotic on the market to do this. Why? Because Sole Supports has an entirely new way to capture the right posture of  the foot and then make a device strong enough to put your foot in that posture  when you stand on it.

But doesn’t that make it uncomfortable?  Surprisingly not: since Sole Supports are made custom to the shape of your foot, the corrective forces are distributed evenly across the entire bottom of your foot –unlike conventional supports that use isolated bumps and posts to influence the foot.  If they are so effective why aren’t Sole Supports what most doctors use?  Since our way of doing things is so radically different from most doctors are taught in school many of them are reluctant to  change how they do things. But many medical practitioners are now adopting this method  once they  have had the proper training and see the improved results.  We firmly believe that, in the near future, Sole Supports will soon become the new medical standard orthotic.

#2 : Custom Orthotics Provide Great Control and Great Comfort

Most foot care practitioners will tell you that you must choose between comfort and aggressive control in an arch support. They offer a soft, cushiony foam support for comfort and a rigid, hard platform for functional control. But, wouldn’t it be great to have the best of both worlds: control and comfort?

It turns out that, when you cast the foot the way we do with Sole Supports™, you get both the best functional control and great comfort. How is that possible? For function we cast the foot with as high an arch as that foot will easily make, because it is the posture of the foot, more than the rigidity of the platform, that gives the foot its functional correction. That means we can make our support less rigid and more comfortable and still get much better functional control.

Another reason why sole supports are more comfortable than the typical arch support or orthotic is your custom shape. Actually, it is your custom foot shape, the one we capture with our proprietary casting technique. The shape we use to make an exact match in the Sole Support. By making full contact in the exact shape of the bottom of your foot we are able to distribute all those corrective forces evenly, using the entire surface area of your foot to spread them out. You feel supported but comfortable.

With the new methods used by Sole Supports, you can now have the best functional control with great comfort. Once you get used to that feeling you won’t go anywhere without them,

#3 : Custom Orthotics Correct Knee, Hip & Back Posture

When the arches of the feet slump, as most will at some point, they have negative effects on knee, hip and back posture. This is because, from the spine to the foot, all joints are connected and influenced by changes in any other joint in the chain. Fallen arches put a twist in the chain that effects everything up to the spine.

Since Sole Supports™ were designed to restore the proper arch height of the foot, wearing them can help improve the posture and health of the knee, hip and back as well.

Postural imbalances at any joint, especially ones that bear full body weight in standing like the knee, hip and spine, lead to excessive wear and tear that can cause arthritis or even disc degeneration in the spine. There are many other things necessary for healthy joints, such as good strength, endurance and flexibility, but using Sole Supports™ is an easy way to insure better joint health every day.

As the arch of the foot falls it causes a twist up the leg with negative consequences for the knee, hip and back. So by restoring your arch height with Sole Supports™, you can correct the other imbalances at the same time.

From the back view you can appreciate another critical change in posture due to a fallen arch: the leg is effectively shortened on the side with the most arch loss; the pelvis tilts out of alignment and the spine inherits an abnormal curvature.

#4 : Our Custom Orthotics are the Only Orthotic that is Calibrated to match your Weight, Foot Flexibility and Activity level.

If you need glasses, do they only ask if you are nearsighted or farsighted? No they measure the specific sight capacity of each eye, then calibrate the lens for each eye to match its specific need. If you need a hearing aid, do they just measure the gross size of your ear and make the hearing aid? No, they make a careful impression of your ear canal and measure your hearing capacity to make the aid to meet the specific need of your ear. So if you need a corrective foot orthotic, why would you settle for a generic shape and flexibility that does not account for the specific need of each foot? And yet that’s how most “custom” foot orthotics are prescribed today.

Think about it. Bigger, heavier people need more foot support than smaller, lighter people. Feet that are flatter and floppier need more support than feet with high arches and more rigidity. Very physically active people need more support than people who sit most of the day; people who do routine heavy lifting than those who do not. Etc., etc.

Sole Supports, has made the extra effort to offer a truly custom device in every respect. To do that, we have to figure in your weight, flexibility rating of each foot and general activity level, in addition to insuring we have an accurate cast of each foot. Each Sole Support shell is made completely from scratch, with no generic starter plates, add-on pads or arch filler. Then we calibrate each shell to deliver the right combination of flexibility and rigidity for each foot. First we had to invent the world’s first and only orthotic calibrator.

#5 : They may Reduce or Eliminate and Established Deformity with Regular Use

Normal Function = Normal Appearance

When it comes to disease and healthcare, most of us understand it as a one way process: we get a disease and a doctor fixes us. In the real world, however, our bodies are moving in one of two directions: towards disease when we don’t live healthily; or towards health —when we take care of ourselves and our bodies function normally. Sometimes, of course, disease is beyond our personal control. When it comes to healthy foot function, though, about 99% of us have a choice. If you understand how feet are supposed to function, that choice should be Sole Supports™.

Because Sole Supports are the first foot orthotic designed to actually change the posture and function of the foot. All other orthotics are designed to provide local pressure relief on certain areas of the foot while leaving the overall posture and function of the foot the same. That means that a typical orthotic will only give some pain relief but let the foot degenerate into a number of common foot deformities: bunions, hammertoes, corns and calluses, big toe arthritis and numerous other strange, shoe-rubbing bumps. And the pain relief is usually only temporary because the underlying cause of the foot problem, poor posture and function, has been ignored.

The only way to solve both foot pain and deformity problems permanently is to restore normal working posture and function to the foot. Sole Supports certified practitioners do this by capturing your full available arch with our casting technique. We then make the orthotic completely custom to your foot shape, flexibility, weight and activity level.

As long as your bunion or other deformity is not “set in stone”, there is a good chance that wearing your Sole Supports day after day, whenever you are on your feet, will eventually give your feet the ability to heal themselves. With that healing the deformities will disappear. How can that happen? Like we said above, your health can go down or up depending on your lifestyle. Likewise, your feet can improve or worsen depending on how you support them. Give your feet back their normal function and they will give you back their normal appearance.

Custom Orthotics can be beneficial with the following conditions:

• Plantar Fascitis
• Morton’s Neuroma
• Knee Pain
• IT Band Dysfunction
• Flat Feet & Overpronation
• Hip Bursitis
• Bunions
• Low Back Pain
• Neck Pain
• Foot Changes during Pregnancy