We have provided you with a pair of fully bespoke, custom made orthotic insoles.
Settling in period
The key thing to keep in mind, is that you are wearing orthotic insoles that will adjust your walking pattern. They are not like spectacles or hearing aids that require less adjusting to. Your orthotic insoles have prescription features to change the way you walk!
In real terms, this means that in the first few weeks of use, you will potentially be ‘waking up’ under-used muscle chains; relaxing tighter areas. Some settling/adjusting pains may occur (rather like starting a new exercise regime and feeling some demand on your leg muscles).
If you use the orthotics too intensively to begin with, you may experience more acute teething issues!
For this reason it is important to wear them for one hour on the first day, two hours on the second day, three hours on the third day, and so on, until after two weeks you can wear them comfortably all of the time.
If ANY settling-in aches occur in the legs or feet, have a day’s break and then continue with the previous day’s schedule.
Daily calf and hamstring stretches will help minimise soft-tissue adjustment in this period.
Do not try any sporting or impact activity in them in the first two weeks.
Fitting them into your footwear
In some cases, you may need to remove the existing insole from your footwear to ensure there is sufficient space to use these Orthotics; you will probably also need to trim the toe ends to fit into your shoes.
When trimming, we recommend that you use one of your removable shoe insoles as a template to cut to size.
Cleaning your Orthotics
Whether you have leather covered orthotics or ‘naked shells’ you can clean the orthotics with soapy water and a nail brush/cloth etc.
It may also be worth giving the orthotics a wipe with surgical spirit, Febreeze or odor eater shoe spray occasionally, to freshen them up. This would be more pertinent for runners and athletes and those who tend to have sweatier feet.
Finally…
The evidence base shows that it takes most people up to 12 weeks to settle in to their new Orthotics.
NOTE: Please feel free to contact us at any time though, if you have any questions, concerns or would like to request further pairs for your other shoes. Most Labs (including the ones we use) only keep impressions, scans and orthotic prescriptions on file for 18 months. After this time, for further pairs, you’d need to see us for a podiatry appointment for a fresh assessment and new impressions.