Foot orthoses are generally traditionally used to deal with a range of biomechanical problems of the foot and lower leg. These foot supports are inserts that are used in the shoe in an attempt to improve alignment of the feet in such a way that they help ailments in the foot and leg. These complaints range from, for example, plantar fasciitis in the heel to shin splints that can happen in the legs of athletes. All the research evidence shows that the clinical outcomes with foot inserts are usually good and most people that have them are happy with them. Nevertheless, foot orthotics are only ever do worthwhile if you in fact use them. You do need to have suitable footwear to wear them in and wear them for long enough for the problem they were issued for to resolve.
One of the difficulties with foot inserts is that you simply need to use them in footwear. This is often a issue if you do not like using footwear or reside in a warm climate where the using of footwear is problematic. In these climates people like putting on jandals (referred to as ‘thongs’ in Australia) that you can not really use with a foot orthotic. There are several options that are offered. Among those is to restrict the time that you’re not wearing the foot orthoses, so that you wear footwear with the inserts for long enough and do not wear the flip flops too much so that the painful condition does not occur. An alternative is by using things like the arch support sandals or jandals such as the Archie Thongs from Australia. These have some arch support built into them and can typically be used instead of foot supports. Footwear much like the Archies will most likely not be as good as an adequately made foot orthotic, but they could be more than sufficient to supplement them and use when the proper shoes can’t or will not be used.