Foot Bunion Treatment and Full Contact Orthotics

Bunions are one of the most common foot problems that people have. A bunion is a bony bump located at the base of the big toe and can be painful when it rubs against a person’s shoe. Bunions form when the big toe moves out of place and begins to turn toward the other toes. As the big toe moves towards the other toes, calluses, corns and deformities of the other toes usually occurs, in addition to possible limited motion in the big toe.

Symptoms of a bunion include:

• Redness
• Swelling
• Pain at the base of the big toe
• You may also experience symptoms in your feet, knees, hips and lower back

Your big toe is designed to bear most of your weight when you walk. Excessive pronation (or flattening of the foot) can contribute the formation of bunions. Bunions are the result of improper forces being passed through the joint during walking and a bunion is usually the end result of a long period of incorrect foot function.

Foot Bunion Treatment: The initial goal of bunion treatment is to relieve pressure on the bunion and to relieve any other symptoms that may be present. Additional foot bunion treatment can involve:

• Footwear modifications: correctly fitting shoes are essential to help pain caused by a bunion rubbing against the inside of the shoe. This helps the pain but does not help correct the bunion.

• Bunion surgery: this type of surgery can vary with the type and severity of the bunion. Surgery is often indicated in moderate to severe bunions and in bunions that do not respond to conservative measures. If your bunion requires surgery, it is crucial that the cause of the problem is also addressed. Failure to do this may result in additional surgery when your bunion returns in a few years

• Custom-made Full Contact Orthotics will address your bunion by correcting abnormal joint positions to allow normal joint function to be restored. This type of orthotic provides both primary treatment and preventative bunion care. Full Contact Orthotics, unlike typical custom orthotics, are designed to completely support the corrected arch of your foot, as determined by a unique way of capturing your optimal foot position. This truly restores proper foot function. When this is done, the cause of your bunion is being addressed rather than just the symptoms.

The right orthotics can arrest or reverse bunions, especially in mild to moderate cases. Full Contact Orthotics, however, are indicated to help restore proper function to the foot even in severe cases. Resolution of your bunion and its symptoms will vary based on the type, severity and cause of your bunion. In addition, your age and the mobility of your joints is also a factor in foot bunion treatment. Full Contact Orthotics are also critical to avoid re-occurrence of your bunion after surgery.

For more information about foot bunion treatment, please contact Dr. Klein or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.

Foot and Ankle Stress Fractures – Treatment and Prevention

What do people who jog, basketball players, dancers, gymnasts, and tennis players have in common? All of them are at an increased risk of foot and ankle stress fractures.

A stress fracture is caused by a small crack in the bone. Overuse is the most common reason they develop: high-impact sports contribute to the fractures, as do running and basketball. Also, people with osteoporosis or other diseases that weaken bone can develop a stress fracture from performing everyday activities.

When the muscles of the foot and/or ankle are over-tired, they have a harder time absorbing the shock of repeated impacts. When they are fatigued enough, the muscles begin transferring the stress of the impact to the bones of the foot or ankle: this is when stress fractures can occur. The most common areas for foot and ankle stress fractures are the second and third metatarsals of the foot and in the heel. Other common places for stress fracture are the outer bone of the lower leg (the fibula), and a bone on the top of the midfoot called the navicular. Improper sports equipment, such as shoes that are too worn or stiff, can also contribute to stress fractures.

Foot and Ankle Stress Fracture Symptoms:

• Pain that develops gradually, increases with weight-bearing activity, and diminishes with rest
• Pain that becomes more severe and occurs during normal, daily activities
• Swelling on the top of the foot or the outside of the ankle
• Tenderness to touch at the site of the fracture
• Possible bruising

Treatment of Foot and Ankle Stress Fractures

• Stop the activity and rest if you suspect a stress fracture.
• Apply ice to the injured area 3-4 times a day for 10 minutes each time, and elevate your foot or leg.
• Try not to put weight on the injured leg until you have seen a doctor.
• Rest approximately 6-8 weeks from the activity that caused the injury. Do non-aeorbic exercise, such as swimming or cycling until the injury has healed.
• Your doctor may recommend protective footwear to reduce stress on your leg or your foot until it has healed. A full contact orthotic is used to treat stress fractures, as it supports the metatarsals better than a weight bearing cast.
• In some cases, you may need to have a cast applied or may need surgery to heal properly.

Prevention of Stress Fractures

• Don’t wear old or worn-out running shoes. Use ICON Full Contact Orthotics that match your arch exactly, and immediately control the movement of your foot to give you the most
  amount of support and correction. A full contact orthotic is the only device that fully supports the metatarsals the instant weight bearing begins.
• Alternate your activities (example: alternate swimming with jogging) so you don’t cause a repetitive stress injury.
• Gradually increase time, speed, and distance when starting a new sport; a 10% increase per week is fine.
• Strength training can help prevent early muscle fatigue and the loss of bone density that comes with aging.
• Stop the activity if pain or swelling comes back. If pain continues for a few days after resting, see your doctor.

For more information about foot and ankle stress fractures, please contact Dr. Marc Klein or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.

Full Contact Orthotics For Shin Splints

Shin splints are very common – in fact, 13% of all running injuries are caused by tibial stress syndrome (more commonly known as shin splints). Most athletes, dancers, and runners will get them on occasion and non-athletes can get them just from doing something they are unaccustomed to doing, such as jogging to catch their runaway dog. Shin splints result from inflammation and damage of the tendons and muscles that run up the shin. They aren’t a true medical condition, but they are symptomatic of an underlying problem.

Shin splints come from the overuse of the involved muscle and tendon. They can result from:

• Repetitive movements such as those involved in running
• Stress fractures (tiny, hairline breaks in the lower leg bones)
• An increase in exercise levels
• Over-pronation or arch flattening which occurs when you take a step: the arch flattens to absorb the impact and instead of the muscle and tendon stretching, it pulls the muscle away from the bone. Take enough steps (as when running) and the overworked tendons and muscles will cause pain and inflammation. Full contact orthotics for shin splints that offer arch support are very helpful in preventing over-pronation.

Shin splints cause a dull, achy pain down the front of the affected lower leg. The pain may be intermittent or constant and the area may be sore to the touch. It is even possible that the swollen muscles can press on the nerves in the foot, causing a numb or tingly feeling or weakness in the foot.

You can treat shin splints by decreasing pain, inflammation or swelling, and by addressing the underlying cause of the condition:

• Exercise to stretch and strengthen the muscles in the lower leg. Exercises that make your muscles stronger are usually effective in preventing a recurrence once your shin splints have healed.
• Take anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen or aspirin, and/or use ice applied directly to the painful areas of your shin. Also, wrapping your lower leg with an elastic bandage can be helpful if there is any swelling. Keep in mind that these treatments do not heal the underlying causes of your shin splints.
• Rest and avoidance: Rest is often recommended to reduce inflammation and swelling. You may want to decrease your training time or distance until your shins have a chance to heal. You may also want to avoid impact activities such as running until your shin has healed. Remember that, although rest may decrease your pain temporarily, it does not address the cause of your shin splints.
• Use Custom Full Contact Orthotics for shin splints: Properly designed biomechanical orthotics (the kind that actually change the way your foot functions) are often the most effective treatment of shin splints. A full contact orthotic will address both the current painful condition and will prevent re-occurrence of the problem over the long term. An ICON Full Contact Orthotic will completely support your arch to relieve the stress and pulling of the muscle in your leg that you have damaged. This is most effective in correcting the structural origin of the problem: loss of arch height. A combination of foot orthotics (to address the cause of your shin splints) and therapies (to decrease the inflammation) is the most effective strategy.

By correcting the cause of your problem with ICON Full Contact Orthotics for shin splints, you can expect to have 50-80% relief in 3 weeks and 80-100% relief in 6-8 weeks.

For more information about ICON Full Contact Orthotics for shin splints, please contact Dr. Marc Klein or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.

Breaking The Foot Pain Cycle With Custom Foot Orthotics

The food server, retail worker, and nurse all have one thing in common: they spend most of their day standing. They, along with thousands of others, suffer from foot pain that they assume is a normal condition of their occupation. One patient of mine admitted that “for too long I accepted my sore, achy feet, and the overall body fatigue they caused, as the natural consequence of getting older… it seemed natural to me to have foot pain after more than a half century of running, playing sports and otherwise racking up foot mileage.”

Understanding Foot Pain

Most people don’t realize that foot pain isn’t a result of stress from standing or walking, but rather from inappropriate, standardized footwear. If you need eyeglasses, you wouldn’t wear a pair without customizing them to your prescription because your eyes would hurt and you’d experience headaches. It’s the same with orthotics. Foot pain occurs because the muscles in the bottom of the foot are stretching abnormally due to an improper arch in your shoes. If your arch is not properly supported as you walk, your foot muscles become stretched and fatigued because they are not being held up by your skeletal structure.

How Custom Foot Orthotics Can Help

Using Icon Full Contact Technology, I mold high performance custom foot orthotics, making a precise match for your arch. This changes how your foot functions during everyday activities, allowing it to re-form into a normal shape that permits pain-free function. This is a breakthrough from the old-fashioned techniques most podiatrists use which don’t allow for full contact of the arch, thereby making the foot collapse as you walk. Those types of orthotics only alleviate a portion of the pain, rather than fixing the problem completely.

One patient of mine testifies that “the Icon orthotics Dr. Klein made for me didn’t just mitigate my problems, they virtually solved them.” Another states that “in less than one week after getting your custom Icon orthotics all pain and discomfort left me” and he felt ten years younger. It’s also important to understand that your feet affect other parts of your body. Most patients who experience relief from foot pain also find pain disappearing in their knees, hips, spine, and more, which makes our high-performance custom foot orthotics life-enhancers rather than just pain relievers.

For more information about how custom foot orthotics can help break your foot pain cycle, please contact Dr. Klein online or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.

Full Contact ICON Orthotics Treat More Than Foot Pain!

When U. S. Open Tennis champion Andy Roddick was 15 years old, he came to my office requesting a replacement pair of old-fashioned technology orthotics. He had been using them for about a year for generalized foot pain and he had outgrown them. I made him the pair that he requested and also recommended to him and his dad that he needed a lot more support than he was getting. They decided to try the High Performance Full Contact Technology ICON Orthotics.

Andy told his dad that within one week of using his new ICON orthotics, his back pain, which he had been dealing with for almost 18 months, had disappeared. High-performance podiatric orthotics had corrected the functioning of his entire leg, thus relieving his back pain, whereas Andy’s older technology orthotics had not. The improvement was so dramatic that his father and his coach ordered a couple of pairs for themselves.

What are orthotics? Orthotics are shoe inserts/arch supports, which can be purchased over-the- counter or can be custom-made. Custom made orthotics can be made using old technology or the new High-Performance Full Contact Technology, which gives the most amount of support and correction.

Who would benefit the most from High-Performance Podiatric Orthotics? We are now able to relieve not only foot pain and heel pain, but also ankle, knee, hip and lower back pain. People who stand on their feet all day can also benefit from ICON orthotics. Pregnant women experience back pain due to the changes in their feet: they too can be helped.

What is the difference between High-Performance Full Contact Podiatric Orthotics and older orthotics? Full Contact technology is the main difference. If you hold an old-fashioned technology orthotic up to your foot, you would see that it doesn’t quite match YOUR ARCH. Full Contact ICON orthotics match your arch, exactly. The difference is that when you are using the Full Contact technology it immediately controls your foot, whereas the old-fashioned technology requires your foot to collapse first and then it begins to help.

Patients should also be aware that the shoes and sneakers they are presently wearing can give a tremendous amount of information to a podiatrist. I always ask that my patients bring in their sneakers so I can see poor wear patterns, which again are usually due to abnormal functioning of the foot. One of the most important things for patients to be aware of is the proper fit of most of their shoes. Shoes with laces should be fit larger than a regula dress shoe and should have approximately a thumbnail’s width in front of the longest toe.

For more information about ICON Orthotics and how they can help you, please contact Dr. Klein or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.

Heel Pain and Plantar Fasciitis Treatment

Charlie Alexander, a triathlete, came to my South Florida office for plantar fasciitis treatment after not being able to participate in his favorite pastime for over a year and a half due to constant foot pain. The final straw was when he could not even get out of bed because of the pain in his heels. Diagnosed with a severe case of plantar fasciitis, Charlie had unsuccessfully tried all classic symptomatic treatments such as stretching, cortisone injections, anti-inflammatory medications and conventional podiatric orthotics. However, Charlie had never tried High Performance Full Contact Icon orthotics. He was very skeptical since he had tried orthotics several times before. I prescribed a pair of Full Contact Icon orthotics for Charlie and within six months, he was again competing in the Ironman triathalon, pain free.

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It often occurs without any history of trauma. Patients experience a lot of pain especially when they get out of bed first thing in the morning or after sitting for long periods of time and then standing up. It is especially common in runners, people who are overweight, pregnant women, and those who wear shoes without adequate support.

The plantar fascia is the thick band on the bottom of the foot that attaches to the heel and extends to the toes. Without this band, the foot would totally collapse each time you stepped on it. Plantar fasciitis is thought to be an irritation to the plantar fascia or the plantar fascia pulling away from the bone on the inside of the heel. Over time a heel spur appears on x-ray. There are many common treatments for this problem, which include stretching, night splints, motion controls shoes, physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medicines.

Patients come for plantar fasciitis treatment at my South Florida office after being treated for months with all of these modalities that I just listed. The reason that these modalities do not help is the fact that they are addressing the patient’s symptoms and not the underlying problem. The underlying problem is the pulling away of the plantar fascia from the heel bone. During the day, the band partially detaches from the medial side, or inside, of the heel. At night, the foot relaxes and the band starts to heal back to the bone. With only 6 to 8 hours of healing time, when the patient steps down in the morning, the band pulls away from the heel, causing the pain that occurs when first arising.

In summary, plantar fasciitis is due to biomechanical abnormalities, or a breakdown in the structure of the foot. Poorly functioning feet can also lead to knee, hip, and lower back pain. Biomechanical issues must be addressed for the long-term resolution of this problem. The use of High Performance Full Contact orthotics, specifically the ICON ORTHOTIC, allows the plantar fascia to stay in contact with the heel bone while weight bearing. This is the single most important long-term treatment. If you can keep the plantar fascia close to the bone while standing, it is kept close to the bone when off weight-bearing, and that leaves only the first 30 to 60 minutes every morning when a patient showers and then gets dressed, when the band is pulling away from the heel. This allows the body a significant time advantage to heel the problem by itself. If you allow the body to heal the problem by itself, it will. When treating this problem, I explain to my patients that if we can address the underlying causes, we rarely have to treat the symptoms. I treat less than 5% of my patients with cortisone injections or any of the standard symptomatic treatments.

For more information about plantar fasciitis treatment in South Florida with High Performance Full Contact Icon orthotics, please contact Dr. Klein or call his office at 561-447-7571 today.