Many people have foot pain, or flat feet, or high arches. Imbalances in the feet can cause knee pain, hip pain, muscle pain and cramps, and also low back pain.

In the past, orthotics were made with the patient sitting down and the doctor making a plaster cast of the foot. Strangely enough, some doctors still use this old fashioned method when much better technology exists to make a more precise orthotic. Many people’s orthotics did nothing more than make their pain worse.

The old fashioned orthotics that many doctors then prescribed were very rigid and uncomfortable, and usually only supported the inner arch. They were usually very expensive and did not have any satisfaction guarantee.

Rigid orthotics, like the ones most podiatrists still prescribe, will often create more pain due to some simple neurology. A rigid orthotic will restrict the movement of the joints. Anytime motion is restricted in a joint, pain nerves will be facilitated (stimulated to send more pain information).

When there is movement in a joint, pain nerves are turned down and their message is ignored by the brain. Here is an example: if you bang your hand into something and it hurts, you will automatically shake it, right? The pain seems to go down with that action. The reason is that when you cause movement in a joint, you turn down and ignore pain nerves.