What can you use instead of foot orthotics?

Foot supports are widely used to treat a variety of biomechanical conditions of the foot and lower leg. These foot supports are inserts that are used in the footwear in an attempt to modify positioning of the foot in such a way that they help problems in the feet and leg. These problems vary from, for example, plantar fasciitis in the heel to shin splints that can happen in the legs of athletes. All the scientific evidence shows that the clinical results with foot orthoses are likely to be beneficial and most people that have them are satisfied with them. Nevertheless, foot orthotics can only ever be worthwhile if you actually use them. You do need to have proper shoes to use them in and use them for long enough for the problem they were prescribed for to get better.

One of the difficulties with foot orthotics is that you need to use them in shoes. This is often a problem if you do not like wearing footwear or reside in a hot environment in which the using of footwear is problematic. In these environments people like wearing jandals (referred to as ‘thongs’ in Australia) that you can not really use with a foot orthotic. There are numerous options that are available. Among those is to reduce the time that you are not wearing the foot orthoses, so that you wear footwear with the orthoses enough and do not wear the sandals too much so that the painful condition does not occur. An alternative choice is by using things like the arch support sandals or jandals such as the Archie Thongs from Australia. These have some arch support constructed into them and may typically be used rather than foot orthotics. Shoes such as the Archies will usually not be as effective as a properly made foot supports, but they could be more than sufficient to supplement them and use when the proper footwear can't or will not be worn.