Whether you suffer from joint pain (hip or knee osteoarthritis), flat feet, cavus feet, legs of unequal length, localized hyper-support of the foot, orthopedic insoles can provide relief, highlights the Foot Clinic. They are custom made and then placed in your shoes. But they are not suitable for everyone. Age and certain pathologies must indeed be taken into consideration. Find out what the contraindications are to wearing orthopedic insoles.
1. Orthopedic insoles are not recommended for young children
Young age can be a contraindication for making and wearing orthopedic insoles. Indeed, specifies the Lyon College of General Practitioners, except in rare cases, orthopedic insoles are not justified before the age of 12 or 14. The reason is simple: the imbalance between leg length can be resolved during adolescence and the curve of the arch continues to evolve until adolescence. Wearing orthopedic insoles could therefore harm the development of growth and cause an imbalance, where the child would have provided compensation on its own, and naturally. Only a difference of several centimeters between the two legs, certain pathologies such as osteochondrosis (pathologies of the growth plate), cerebral palsy or spina bifida, can justify the wearing of plantar orthoses from the age of 5. , specifies the journal Medicine and Childhood.
2. Foot orthotics not recommended for the elderly
In an elderly person who walks little, or even more so, who no longer walks, wearing orthopedic insoles provides no benefit. It may even prove counterproductive, since the foot is constrained by the presence of a sole, which can increase the risk of falling.
3. Orthopedic insoles, a false cure for back pain
Orthopedic insoles are sometimes recommended by podiatrists to relieve your back pain. However, the beneficial effect of foot orthoses on back pain is increasingly questioned, whether you suffer from cervical, back, lumbar or sacral pain. No scientific study to date proves that orthopedic insoles can prevent or treat back pain. They may consist of an additional treatment, if the length of the two legs presents an inequality greater than 2 or even 3 cm in an adolescent or adult person and is a source of pain. In all cases, the benefit/cost ratio of prescribing orthopedic insoles must be studied: plantar orthoses are in fact relatively expensive, not fully covered and, in the majority of cases, only provide relief. less back pain. Other solutions must then be considered such as physical activity, adopting good postures at work and when carrying loads, weight loss or physiotherapy.
Sources
- Orthopedic insoles: Indications and prescription methods, Lyon College of General Practitioners, October 29, 2016
- Orthopedic insoles, The foot clinic
- Should we wear orthopedic insoles and correct an imbalance in the pelvis when we have back pain?, Rhumatismes.net, site of the osteoarticular center of Cochin hospital (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris), September 30, 1999
- When to prescribe orthopedic insoles or not?Medicine and Childhood magazine, October 2013