How Orthotics and Chiropractic Can Help Your Foot Pain
When you’ve been unfortunate enough to be struck by a sudden or recurring medical condition, get injured at work, at home, or when playing a sport professionally or for recreation and fitness, it’s essential to set yourself some solid recovery goals.
Different forms of rehabilitation can improve both the speed and extent of healing and recovery after an accident or illness, such as active rehab or physiotherapy. However, few approaches go hand-in-hand quite like orthotics and chiropractic treatment. That’s because orthotics treat muscle and skeletal problems, and chiropractic treatment does the same.
Individually, both orthotics or visiting a chiropractor can help you manage the pain from an injury, promote faster healing, and regain mobility quicker. The primary advantage of seeing a chiropractor in Coquitlam or Port Moody to discuss orthotic solutions is that they work across the whole human body and take an entirely holistic approach to provide answers.
Port Moody & Coquitlam Chiropractors: What is Orthotics?
Orthotic devices are known as orthoses, and they get separated into four primary body areas. They can be fitted to the lower extremities and lower limbs, the upper extremities and upper limbs, the trunk – covering the spine, or a patient might use a head orthoses.
Orthotic devices can provide relief after an injury, paralysis, and certain neurological conditions. When an orthotic device spans several joints, it’s typically referred to accordingly – such as knee-ankle orthoses.
Some patients who experience permanent injury or illness may initially use a temporary orthotic device and then move onto a prosthesis. Because chiropractors make such a broad assessment of specific issues and problems, they’re used to working in conjunction with and alongside different and complementary techniques that can speed up recovery and dramatically reduce pain and discomfort. Orthotics is just one of the options available during chiropractic care, and it provides many key benefits as part of a more comprehensive treatment plan:
· Support: Orthotics uses supports and braces that can protect specific body parts after injury or illness, allowing faster healing and permitting exercise that may not otherwise be possible. Immobilization is vital with particular injuries, and orthotics is the perfect remedy in such cases.
· Weight: Injuries or problems with knees, feet, and legs can make a recovery prolonged and difficult, mainly because they’re weight-bearing body features. Orthotics can provide solutions for reducing or eliminating weight during recovery and rehabilitation.
· Stability: A weakness after an injury in one specific part of the body can have knock-on implications for other areas. After all, the knee bone’s connected to the leg bone, and a lack of local function can cause a lack of stability elsewhere. Orthotics can be tailored to provide stability when such an injury occurs.
· Alignment: Just like dental braces can gradually straighten and align teeth over a period of time, orthotics can be employed to correct spinal, pelvic, and other misalignments that can prevent recovery or lead to further problems after injury, poor posture, or even a medical procedure. When orthotics and chiropractic treatments are applied together, it can significantly speed rehab.
Orthotics and Paralysis
Orthotic devices can improve the quality of life and promote the independence of paralysis patients immensely. They can be used to treat the effects of paralysis in one or a group of muscles and are typically custom made. Patients can suffer local and extensive paralysis for a variety of reasons, such as diseases like multiple sclerosis, injuries, or medical procedures. Today, lightweight carbon fiber and titanium orthoses are available, maximizing benefit while impacting movement and discomfort minimally.
Orthotics After a Stroke
Strokes can affect areas of the brain that deal with controlling specific movements and areas. Prompt treatment and assessment followed by fitting an orthotic device can reduce gait problems and even allow patients the time they need to learn to walk, stand, or move upper limbs again in some cases.
Orthotics and Foot Health
Foot and ankle problems can produce some real challenges for both chiropractors and patients – but orthotic devices can eliminate the risk of a drawn-out recovery. Because the foot takes a lot of your weight for long periods and endures regular stresses and movement, they’re prone to minor and major issues along the way. Chiropractors may also look to the feet when assessing issues with the knees, spine, or hips because foot problems can literally be the root cause of misalignments and injuries that will reoccur if the source of the problem is left untreated.
Although orthotic devices come in many high-tech, complex forms, some foot orthoses are as simple as insoles – but they can produce dramatic effects. Other orthotic devices for feet work to reduce excess or incorrect movement and treat issues like ‘flat feet’ or over-pronated foot issues.
Chiropractors and Orthotics Lead to Quicker Results
Managing pain can limit chiropractors’ options in terms of promoting movement and recommending exercises that speed recovery. With the support and stabilization offered by orthotics, patients can achieve faster outcomes, be more mobile during recovery, and experience less depression, dependent behavior, and stress during rehabilitation. Orthotics can even get people back to work more quickly after an accident.
Orthotics and faster recoveries also reduce a patient’s reliance on medications after injury or procedures because they can be tailored to reduce movement that might cause pain or add to the extent of the injury and the risk of infection. Medications have benefits, but prolonged use can lead to addiction and ongoing side effects.
Chiropractors in Coquitlam and Port Moody: Orthotics
While some orthotic devices are available off the shelf in drug stores and other retail outlets, it’s essential to treat severe or chronic problems with properly fitted orthoses. When you visit a chiropractor, they’ll perform detailed, computer-aided assessments and modelling where required and recommend appropriate devices as part of a tailored treatment plan. No matter your injury, illness, or condition, please don’t hesitate to book an appointment with a chiropractor today and get your rehabilitation moving faster.
People who have a healthy spine tend to have a healthy brain, too. That’s why chiropractic care for brain health works for so many Canadians, and it’s worth knowing exactly why it’s so beneficial.
