or

Do Your FEET HURT?

Call 916-741-2041 NOW!

Pay them some attention!

Your feet and ankles are the foundation for your entire spinal structure and affect your long term health and wellness.

Who should you see for orthotics?

Orthotics support, straighten or improve the functioning of your foot and ankle. If your feet often hurt, you should be wearing custom orthotics. But be sure you consult a reputable licensed care provider… In some less common cases, you need a trained professional who is able to make the call and refer you to another provider altogether. Sometimes genetics, repetitive stress or traumatic injuries make orthotics secondary to conditions best evaluated by a podiatrist or an orthopedist. But if orthotics are right for you, you cannot beat the cost and performance of our custom orthotics!

Off-the-shelf vs. Custom Orthotics? Get Educated Before you buy!

Anything off-the-shelf is going to be less expensive, for sure. But considering that a pair of off-the-shelf orthotics are manufactured for a “generic foot”, each will necessarily be a mirror image of the other. Can you say that about your feet? Of course not.

Most orthotics sold today as “custom” are actually prefabricated “off-the-shelf” products!

Often, the term “custom” is used in marketing to describe orthotics similarly to the way food is labeled “all natural” or “farm fresh”. What does that really mean?

Whether a provider uses a foot scale, a foam imprint, a flatbed optical scanner or a pressure-sensitive gadget of any kind, the orthotic sales process is focused on selling you a properly sized prefabricated orthotic. But they justify calling it “customized” if they modify it in any way. What type of adjustments qualify as customizing the orthotic?  Does cutting the toe area down to properly fit in your shoe count as customization? Technically, yes. But if the modification doesn’t augment the principal purpose and we can’t really consider this customization.

No Customization (“off-the-shelf”)

In most cases, if you simply walked on a scanner, or had your foot “sized” in any other manner without further changes to suit the particular foot, then those are not really customized orthotics. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you know the difference and are not overpaying for customization for which you are not getting a benefit.

Functional Customization (“custom fitted”)

Once you are in an orthotic, custom or otherwise, functional customization is the next step. The doctor will examine your foot in the orthotic and where necessary, he will position certain spacers or attachments such as heel wedges or other “posting” that might be necessary so that your weight bearing foot posture is corrected to avoid pronation or orther misalignment or instability. Or he might need to remove some material from underneath a heel spur or add padding under a neuroma to slightly spread the bones away from the area of injury while it heals. These are examples of possible “functional customizations” in that it they optimize the function of the otherwise finished orthotic.

Custom Orthotics (“unique to your feet”)

It is important to recognize that there is a difference between a functionally customized off-the-shelf orthotic and one which is custom made just for your foot. Your feet are unique, with differences even between the two feet on the same person. A custom orthotic is one which is properly sized, AND made to fit each individual foot like a glove to perfectly match your unique shape and arches and any other dimensionally unique features that set each foot apart from any other. You can’t do that with an off-the-shelf product.

When providing a true custom orthotic, Dr. Harriott performs a proper examination of the feet, knees, hips and spine. Based on his clinical findings, your subjective symptoms and complaints, the type of shoes you wear and the size and unique features of your feet, he will order the appropriately sized orthotic blanks. In the past, doctors used plaster casting techniques, but with new materials available today, Dr. Harriott is able to provide a final orthotic which is perfectly customized to each foot, individually, in a neutrally aligned weightbearing state and the result is an orthotic that does the job and FEELS GOOD. After the molding process is complete, Dr. Harriott will evaluate and make any adjustments or modifications to the custom orthotic that are clinically indicated.

Fits like a glove

In Dr. Harriott’s practice, the entire process consists of two visits. The first visit includes a free initial consultation. The patient then pays 1/2  of the total price to cover the examination, prescription and ordering of the product with the balance due at the time of the fitting and customization. Due to the nature of the materials, it is important that they be ordered “fresh” so that the final result is accurate and long lasting. The office will make contact for scheduling of the follow-up visit upon receipt of the ordered materials.

Call 916-741-2041 to schedule