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Insoles, Orthotics, Braces & Taping

All of these modalities can be used for short and long term treatment plans. Their role may be either to support the function of a structure that is injured or to prevent the functioning of a structure that is irritable.

The devices mentioned are all supportive in one way or another. Their roles are to stop, reduce, improve or replacing a lack of movement with 'fake movement' there aren't any. This can be achieved either through preventing the movement occurring - such as with an ankle brace; reducing the amount of movement that occurs, such as with an orthotic arch support that prevents some aspects of pronation; by improving the function of the big toe joint through improvement of the arch's profile or even creating fake movement through the use of a rounded shoe base if the foot struggles with flexing.

They can all be used as either a long term therapy or as a short term aide, and this will depend on the condition, the amount of disability it causes you and what your expectations are for what you should achieve in day-to-day life.

I very rarely recommend prescribing an insole 'for life' and consider that any practitioner who does prescribe like this to have a somewhat more questionnable practice style; but this is very case dependent and can never be one-size-fits all. I would say, however, that I probably prescribe one custom insole for every 30 off-the-shelf or modified off-the-shelf set of insoles that get prescribed.

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