In today's orthotic check-up, our customer is two weeks into their new orthotics. This customer has an F23 foot, which generally means the foot is pretty flat. However, the main issue with this person's foot is a large forefoot varus. Forefoot varus is the angling or inverted position of the bones in the front of the foot relative to the heel. An uncompensated forefoot varus deformity causes the bones on the inside edge of the foot to sit higher off the ground than the outside of the foot when standing.

When Chiappetta Shoes deals with these types of feet, you have you treat them as a flexible foot that has a lot of mobility to it. A lot of the pronation and splaying mobility happens at the gate phase in the middle through the toe. Basically, this person is dealing with late-phase pronation and splaying.

The first 10 days of this customer's orthotics felt like a ""honeymoon"" to them. However in the past three or four days, the customer started to feel previous issues start to come back. Those issues were sciatic and plantar fasciitis. This isn't exactly a foreign instance to happen when your foot is in a whole new mechanical environment. You can expect the transition of your body adjusting to the new orthotics to take a bit to get used to.

When the orthotics were first built, it was built to fit a high arch, but it was a bit too firm for her liking. So the day one adjustment was to take down the arch/part of the base of the orthotic and beveled it inwards so we don't have as firm of a setup within the medial arch. That adjustment made a big difference right out of the gate.

One of the issues we are addressing today is the 5th metatarsal base that has too much pressure on them while she walks. The plan is to cut out that area of the orthotic to alleviate that sensation. The other issue to address is the arch area of the orthotic where we will load up the longitudinal aspect with a combo pad arch bar and met pad.

If you believe you have an F23 foot type (flat foot) as in this example, Chiappetta Shoes carries the Superfeet Berry, which is an awesome over-the-counter solution for women. The Superfeet Orange is the men's version. If you're curious about what type of foot you have and are in foot pain, you can book an appointment at Chiappetta shoes to help us solve your pain. ⬇️

Below you can view the Quadrastep system to get you an idea of where your foot lies on the system, but we definitely recommend stopping by a pedorthist to give you an exact analysis to figure out steps to move forward.

So going back to our customer's situation, Tony has added the 3 mm cushion cork material met pad on the longitudinal area of the foot.

With an F22 foot type, this is just one example of a correction of many additional corrections we can look at. There is no such thing as a perfect foot and nobody has the exact same foot. With each foot being unique, it takes a creative and educated approach to solve a foot problem. Chiappetta Shoes has been solving foot problems for 100 years so stop by soon and let us solve your foot problem.