Orthotic Therapy

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Throughout past couple years I have had the pleasure of shadowing and learning from a number of Pedorthists, in 3 provinces. With that being said, I have observed several, personalized orthotic designing methods that have all resulted in positive outcomes. It was noted that not only the fabricating methods differ, but assessments, casting techniques, and appointment procedures as a whole differed. I do believe there is a lot more behind orthotic therapy than simply the orthotic itself. In fact, the exact mechanism in which foot orthoses produce beneficial results is still widely debated (Collier, 2011; Aboutorabi 2015), thus it cannot be as simple as re-aligning bones/joint. A quote by Scott Cummings states, “Anecdotally, we know what designs work and what designs don’t work” for foot orthotics, yet it is difficult to deny positive results and happy customers. There are several areas that should be considered while exploring new orthotic paradigms. Personally, I believe these following ideas may be important in understanding an orthotics’ success: how different individuals can react to identical orthotic, how orthotics affect muscle activity rather than correcting skeletal alignment, and how proprioception factors into orthotic therapy…show more content…
This is a step away from Roots theory, which I feel like most Pedorthists based their design and how they explain to the client how the orthoses will function. I myself, find describing orthotic intervention with this viewpoint rational, and the easiest to convey therapy to clients and peers. In most cases, basing a treatment plan on achieving proper bone alignment will result in positive results (Aboutorabi, 2015), but this is not indefinite and not everyone will improve from this approach (Collier, 2011; Kolata,

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