How to Prevent Severe Bunion Pain from Flaring Up
Do you have bunion pain that gets notably worse at times? Understanding why these flare-ups can happen can go a long way toward helping you prevent them in the future.
How Custom Orthotics Can Help Relieve Joint Pain
Orthotics, which are custom-made medical devices that you insert into your shoes, can do a lot for your body. They can help correct problems with the alignment of the bones in your feet or take pressure off of certain areas. They’re also an effective tool for easing certain types of joint pain.
In this blog, Kyle Durfey, DPM, and Brian Hiapo, DPM, of Arizona Foot and Ankle Medical Center in Laveen, Arizona, explain how orthotics can help alleviate certain foot conditions and ease associated joint pain.
How orthotics work
There are many types of shoe inserts on the market. You can pick up a pair at your local drugstore, and they may offer some relief. But the orthotic options Dr. Hiapo and Dr. Durfey offer are different.
These inserts are customized just for you and designed to give your feet the exact support and comfort they need. Let’s look at two types of conditions and how orthotics can help alleviate these conditions and the associated joint pain.
Overpronation
If your feet are subject to overpronation, this means that your feet roll inward as you step, which can lead to pain in your ankle joints and problems in your toe joints. Our team can design orthotics that will give your feet the arch support they need so they can align properly.
Not only will orthotics help prevent other parts of your feet from straining to accommodate the inward rolling motion, but these devices can help prevent strain on other parts of your body. If your feet overpronate, this can put stress on your knee joints and hip joints, too.
By properly aligning your feet, this can help protect your joints, relieve pain, and help you avoid problems in the future.
Toe conditions
If you have certain toe conditions, walking can be very difficult. For example, a bunion — which is a misalignment of the joint of the big toe — and hammertoe — which is when one or both joints of a toe point upward — can make general activity very painful. Furthermore, these joint problems can cause shin, knee, and back pain when you try to accommodate for the toe problems.
Orthotics, however, can help alleviate pressure on the parts of your feet that are impacted by these toe conditions, thereby giving you direct joint pain relief and helping you take pressure off other parts of your body.
These are just a couple of examples of how orthotics can help align your feet and relieve joint pain. Orthotics, however, can do much more than this. To learn more about orthotics and to see if they can help you, book an appointment online or over the phone with Arizona Foot and Ankle Medical Center today.
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