Custom Orthotics

Anyone who has ever had to spend several hours on their feet knows that structural anomalies and injuries can have a significant negative impact on their comfort, ability to get around, and quality of life. Many medical conditions and injuries can be exacerbated by poor posture or issues with spine stabilization and musculoskeletal alignment. Custom foot orthotics provides a simple solution to correcting these issues.

These fully customized inserts are worn inside the shoe in order to correct and control congenital or acquired conditions associated with the misalignment of the foot. By aligning the feet properly, orthotics helps to align the entire musculoskeletal system to improve the condition of the ankles, hips, knees, and back.

Made from a plaster cast of the patient’s own foot, these inserts are specially made to correct weight distribution and provide proper support to the arch of the foot. This is not the same as off-the-shelf inserts which, while they may provide some support and pain relief, are not customized to your unique needs and structural anomalies. In fact, these off-the-shelf inserts may do more harm than good in some cases.

Fully custom foot orthotics is created by certified specialists who assess the mechanics of your foot, how you walk, and the anatomy and biomechanics of your lower limbs and feet. This provides them with the information they need to create your custom orthotics as well as make treatment recommendations.

Any adult or child with foot, knee, ankle, or back pain can benefit from the use of foot orthotics. Signs that you may need custom orthotics include abnormal shoe wear, frequent ankle sprains, shin splits, gait abnormalities, general foot pain, chronic heel pain, flat feet, and bunions.

Compression Stockings

Compression socks are a specialized type of hosiery made of a strong elastic fabric. With more tension than traditional socks, they provide a gradient level of pressure against the leg. This pressure is stronger towards the ankle and gradually decrease towards the top, encouraging healthy blood flow to and from the legs and feet. The gradient pressure prevent and improves the symptoms of venous conditions in the lower extremities while controlling swelling and preventing blood pooling.

Venous conditions occur when the valves within the veins are not able to close properly. These valves open and close to push blood back up to the heart but when they malfunction, blood can flow back down into the legs causing problems such as swelling, enlarged veins, blood clots, varicose veins, chronic venous insufficiency, venous ulcers, and deep vein thrombosis.

Compression socks are available in three different levels of support to treat patients with a variety of conditions and needs:

Available off the shelf, mild support compression socks exert a force of 15-50mmHg. Designed to relieve tired and aching legs or minor swelling or the ankle or leg, this socks are not suitable for more advanced venous conditions

Medium support compression socks provide somewhat more pressure in the range of 20-30mmHg. These socks require a medical referral and provide additional support for moderate swelling of the leg or ankle due to venous conditions or hormonal changes caused by pregnancy.

Firm support compression socks offer even more pressure, up to 40mmHg, and are designed for more severe swelling or venous conditions.

We, SK Physiotherapy committed to providing the best possible treatment plan for all our patients, our services extend far beyond the usual scope of a physiotherapy clinic. Working diligently to ensure your comfort, our staff of regulated health professionals will ensure your comfort and create a program tailored to your unique needs.

Knee/Ankle/Back/Wrist Braces

We have a wide selection of braces to help stabilize injured joints. Braces are designed to help stabilize joints that have become hypermobile. Some braces are made quite strong and durable to stabilize joints that are weight bearing such as knee braces and ankle braces. These braces allow some natural movement while at the same time protecting the delicate injured ligaments that are over stretched and injured.

Back Supports

We have a good selection of orthopedic back supports that can be helpful if your chair or workstation has poor ergonomics. A good quality orthopedic back support can help stabilize your back and help improve your posture.

Orthopedic Pillows

We have a number of orthopedic pillows to choose from. A good orthopedic pillow can do wonders for comfort and posture while sleeping. A variety of orthopedic pillows are available such as cervical, low back support or even pillows to help reduce snoring.

Tens Machines

TENS machines stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. TENS are used as a pain relief device that is small, battery operated and portable. There are a wide variety of TENS machines available that are both functional and relatively inexpensive. TENS are connected to the area of stimulation by a minimum of two electrodes with the ability to modulate the pulse, frequency and intensity. It can be quite helpful in managing your pain. It is non-invasive and is used for both acute and chronic type conditions.

Exercise Balls

An exercise ball is available in a number of sizes to suit the individual. The primary benefit of exercising with an exercise ball is that instead of exercising on a hard flat surface your body responds to the instability of the ball. This engages more muscles giving a more complete workout. These muscles will get stronger over time. Exercise balls are used mostly to strengthen the core or abdominal muscles, although there are plenty of other uses as well.