• Immediate fit, observation and patient review
• Known levels of support - arch height, rearfoot and midfoot control
• Shoe fit and comfort are immediately determined
• Elimination of lab errors

Short and Medium Term use of Orthotics

Orthotics can be useful in the short term for treating injuries. Other treatments, like improving tissue strength or reducing load, take longer. Other treatment methods such as mechanobiology techniques - like eccentric loading exercises or changing running form - also take time.

Long-term use of Orthotics

If an athlete does not follow the exercises needed to help their tissues adapt, they may need orthotics. This is especially true if the repetitive loads on their tissues are too high. Excessive repetitive loads can happen because of a person's biomechanics. High joint moments come from the position of the joint axis. Excessive body weight can also be a contributing factor.

Four Steps To Prescribing Interpod

1. Determine how much support is needed from your orthotic:
   i. Use the Keystone Device to measure supination resistance.
   ii. Design features - such as arch height, material type and orthotic stiffness can then be considered and selected.
   iii. Determine if the device requires additions - raise, forefoot pad.
   
   
2. Check Windlass Mechanism:
   i. Do Jack’s and check 1st Met and Ray for motion.
   ii. Design features - such as lateral pad, Plantar groove, 1st Cut away, rearfoot wedging can be prescribed.
   
   
3. LungeTest:
    i. Checks the amount of dorsiflexion available at the ankle joint. Limited dorsiflexion means heel lifts may be beneficial.
   
   
4. Fit to Foot and Shoe:
   i. Check patient footwear. Sometimes the patient must be advised to wear a more supportive shoe to accommodate the orthotic. If the patient is unwilling to compromise, a slimmer orthotic or a zero-degree device may be required.
   ii. Patient trials the orthotic inside the shoe and is assessed. The library system helps you easily check different options. You can look at choices like Soft or Flex, stiffness, arch height, orthotic additions, cover type, and overall comfort.

When to Use Orthotics to Treat Patients

Tissues fatigue during activity as a result of the loads placed upon them and it’s not until rest that they recover. Orthotics can lower these loads. This helps the tissues heal so the patient is pain-free and can continue activities. Orthotics can be used in the short, medium and long term.

The benefits of using well-designed orthotics to lessen the strain on a patient’s painful tissues are:

1. An immediate reduction in the loads placed on the painful tissues
2. Time saving
3. Ease of treatment
4. The ability to have an option to use the orthotics when necessary
5. Orthotic use allows athletes to train longer, harder and more frequently
6. Orthotics can be used as a treatment option in the short, medium or long term

1. Rest and RICE
2. Stretching and strengthening of assisting muscles
3. Changing activity type - cross-training
4. Training on softer surfaces 
5. Decreasing the frequency, intensity and or duration of activity
6. Wearing suitable footwear, including quality socks

Maximise Clinical Outcomes

The Interpod Library range allows practitioners to prescribe just the right amount of support to ease symptoms. You can do this by using a supination resistance test. This test links forces and loads to the right level of orthotic support. When it is harder to supinate the foot, the orthotic device needs to apply more force. This force creates a supination moment at the subtalar joint axis. 

Conversely, the easier it is to supinate the foot then the lower the force required from an orthotic device. This force can be measured using the Keystone device when performing a supination resistance test.

Research shows this test is more predictive of injury than foot posture or other subjective views of alignment. A subtalar joint axis that is more towards the middle will show higher supination resistance. This means it will need more support from orthotics, like rearfoot wedging, arch height, or stiffer orthotics.

A lateral subtalar joint axis will show low supination resistance. This means it needs less orthotic support, like rearfoot wedging, arch height, or orthotic stiffness.

The Interpod Library of orthoses offers practitioners different types of rearfoot and midfoot support. It includes various stiffness levels of orthotic materials and arch heights. This allows for customised treatment based on each patient's unique biomechanics. Read more about the Interpod brand.