Custom Fitted Orthopedics
In medicine, orthopedics is the branch responsible for correcting problems with the muscles and skeleton.
It's a big field; the human skeleton has 206 bones in it, which not only support our muscles but also provide essential protection for our other organs.
Most of those bones, and the muscles that attach to them, are subject to problems that orthopedics tries to deal with.
One of the most common locations for orthopedics to deal with is the feet.
This is hardly surprising, because the feet are pretty complex themselves.
Along with the hands, the feet probably have the highest density of bones and joints in the body.
Each foot and ankle contains 26 separate bones, assembled into 33 joints, and over a hundred muscles, ligaments and tendons.
All of these parts are assembled into a strong, flexible structure that supports our weight, absorbs the impact of walking and running and lets us change posture and direction quickly and easily.
With so much complexity, and so much to do, it's hardly surprising that things often go wrong.
Some of the most common foot problems are caused by fallen or high arches; others, such as Morton's neuroma, involve swellings in the nerves that then cause pain when they're pressured by the bones.
The pain caused by these issues can be relieved by providing support to the foot, which holds it in the correct shape and encourages the bones and muscles to do their job properly.
This is where orthopedics can play a valuable role.
The most common type of orthopedic support for feet is supportive insoles.
These have many advantages; they are relatively cheap and unobtrusive, and also extremely effective at providing support.
Most of us, even if we don't need orthopedic assistance, wear shoes that are a long way from being a perfect fit.
This is inevitable; manufacturers can only produce a limited number of sizes, so most people fall between two of them, and in any case feet also vary widely in width and shape.
For anyone with musculoskeletal problems in their feet this is even more inconvenient than normal.
Badly fitting shoes not only don't provide the right support; they can force the foot into an unnatural position that just makes things worse.
By using an orthopedic insole a badly fitting shoe can be turned into one that holds the foot in a perfect position.
In cases of arch problems this distributes the load of body weight back to the parts of the foot it should be on and helps the bones and muscles to carry out their job as a shock absorber.
For conditions like Morton's neuroma or heel spurs support is provided in the right places to reduce pain.
The main problem with orthopedic insoles is that they have always been expensive and difficult to obtain.
Generally it's been necessary to make at least one visit to a specialist to have the feet measured, quite often involving messy and time-consuming plaster casts, then waiting for the insoles to be manufactured.
The only way around this is to use off the shelf insoles, but these have the same problem as off the shelf shoes; they're made to fit the average foot, and average feet are something that very few people have.
New techniques aimed at mass customization mean there's now another option.
Image recognition technology was developed for security cameras, allowing multiple frames of a suspect to be built into a three-dimensional computer model of their face.
The same technology, of course, works on feet too.
It's now possible to replace plaster casts with a software package that combines three images of each foot into a perfect model, which can be used to identify areas needing more support.
This model can be adjusted to take account of any medical conditions the purchaser has, then sent to a 3D printer which produces a template in ABS plastic.
This template can then be used as normal to vacuum-form perfectly fitted orthopedic insoles.
This process has two great advantages; custom insoles can be easily ordered online, and the price has now fallen to around that of good off the shelf insoles.
This means that many more people can benefit from their advantages.
It's a big field; the human skeleton has 206 bones in it, which not only support our muscles but also provide essential protection for our other organs.
Most of those bones, and the muscles that attach to them, are subject to problems that orthopedics tries to deal with.
One of the most common locations for orthopedics to deal with is the feet.
This is hardly surprising, because the feet are pretty complex themselves.
Along with the hands, the feet probably have the highest density of bones and joints in the body.
Each foot and ankle contains 26 separate bones, assembled into 33 joints, and over a hundred muscles, ligaments and tendons.
All of these parts are assembled into a strong, flexible structure that supports our weight, absorbs the impact of walking and running and lets us change posture and direction quickly and easily.
With so much complexity, and so much to do, it's hardly surprising that things often go wrong.
Some of the most common foot problems are caused by fallen or high arches; others, such as Morton's neuroma, involve swellings in the nerves that then cause pain when they're pressured by the bones.
The pain caused by these issues can be relieved by providing support to the foot, which holds it in the correct shape and encourages the bones and muscles to do their job properly.
This is where orthopedics can play a valuable role.
The most common type of orthopedic support for feet is supportive insoles.
These have many advantages; they are relatively cheap and unobtrusive, and also extremely effective at providing support.
Most of us, even if we don't need orthopedic assistance, wear shoes that are a long way from being a perfect fit.
This is inevitable; manufacturers can only produce a limited number of sizes, so most people fall between two of them, and in any case feet also vary widely in width and shape.
For anyone with musculoskeletal problems in their feet this is even more inconvenient than normal.
Badly fitting shoes not only don't provide the right support; they can force the foot into an unnatural position that just makes things worse.
By using an orthopedic insole a badly fitting shoe can be turned into one that holds the foot in a perfect position.
In cases of arch problems this distributes the load of body weight back to the parts of the foot it should be on and helps the bones and muscles to carry out their job as a shock absorber.
For conditions like Morton's neuroma or heel spurs support is provided in the right places to reduce pain.
The main problem with orthopedic insoles is that they have always been expensive and difficult to obtain.
Generally it's been necessary to make at least one visit to a specialist to have the feet measured, quite often involving messy and time-consuming plaster casts, then waiting for the insoles to be manufactured.
The only way around this is to use off the shelf insoles, but these have the same problem as off the shelf shoes; they're made to fit the average foot, and average feet are something that very few people have.
New techniques aimed at mass customization mean there's now another option.
Image recognition technology was developed for security cameras, allowing multiple frames of a suspect to be built into a three-dimensional computer model of their face.
The same technology, of course, works on feet too.
It's now possible to replace plaster casts with a software package that combines three images of each foot into a perfect model, which can be used to identify areas needing more support.
This model can be adjusted to take account of any medical conditions the purchaser has, then sent to a 3D printer which produces a template in ABS plastic.
This template can then be used as normal to vacuum-form perfectly fitted orthopedic insoles.
This process has two great advantages; custom insoles can be easily ordered online, and the price has now fallen to around that of good off the shelf insoles.
This means that many more people can benefit from their advantages.
Source...