Christine has now completed her level one and two biomechanics and is able by the use of custom made orthotics help to realign the foot so that the patient is less likely to suffer, heel pain, achilles tendon pain, bunion pain, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, hip pain or back pain if caused by poorly aligned bones in the feet. Poor alignment of the feet can cause all sorts of problems including wear and tear on the joints.

What is biomechanics? The foot was originally designed to walk on relatively soft surfaces such as earth or grass, but nowadays we live in a concrete jungle made up of pavements and hard floor surfaces. This greatly affects the way we walk and may force our feet to roll over to gain contact with the ground and this in turn may cause our arches to drop or flatten. This rolling over is call pronation and excess pronation is believed to affect nearly 50% of the population. Usually the foot rolls inward but you may see the wear on the shoe on the outside of the heel, this is because the foot strikes the ground first on the outside then rolls in to compensate. The following diagram shows on the left an overly pronated foot where the talus is sitting incorrectly on the calcaneus and on the right how orthotics can realign the pronation of the subtalar joint.

WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT

A full examination of the foot and gait will determine the amount of pronation or supination or any other problem that may need attention. The orthotics will then be moulded to fit your shoe and foot; if necessary other posts will be fitted to ensure a perfect comfortable fit, helping to keeping the foot in the neutral position. This in turn will greatly improve posture and pain levels.