Shoe Inserts for Flat Feet: Types & How it Work

Flat foot or fallen feet is a major cause of foot pain that can make your walking, and running a painful experience. In addition to flat foot exercises, you also need shoe inserts for flat feet to avoid such pain in the long term.

Flat foot is a medical condition in which the medial arch becomes fallen, the shoe insert gives support to the arch thereby reducing pain. In this article, we will see how this shoe insert helps you in flat feet.

Shoe inserts for flat feet

Shoe inserts/orthotic support are usually made up of very soft silicone gel material that is inserted inside the shoe. The purpose is to give support to the arch of the foot and maintain its alignment.

However, it also comes as socks fitted with gel support. It makes it easy to wear and use it inside the home without the need for shoes. This is also termed as medial arch support as it gives support to the medial arch of the foot.

To understand how exactly this orthotic insole works, we first need to understand what is a flat foot and what is a medial arch.

What is a flat foot?

Pes planus is another term for flat feet. So, how could we define it?

Flat foot is a medical condition where the curvature of the medial longitudinal arch is flatter than the normal and the entire sole of the foot comes into near-complete or complete contact with the ground[1].

A normal foot has a very good medial arch. This arch is formed by the bones of foot and toes and is maintained by the numerous small muscle, ligaments of the foot, and the plantar aponeurosis.

The structure and dynamicity of foot arches are essential for functions of the foot like shock absorption, bodyweight transmission and to act as a lever for propelling the body forward during locomotion.

How medial arch support can help?

In a flat foot, the medial longitudinal arch falls and the height of the arch reduces. What exactly arch support does is, it gives support to the falling arch. As you can see the figure below.

Medial arch support is soft padding that is inserted into the inner side of the shoe to give support to the arch. It is sometimes also known as a scaphoid pad.

Types of shoe inserts for flat feet

Simple arch support

However, according to the need, there are various designs of these arch support. Below you can see just simple arch support that only be used with shoes. It is removable and can be washed with water.

Arch support insole

If you wish you can get an arch support insole, that you can insert and wear with the shoes. Unlike the above arch support, this makes you free from daily inserting and removing it. Also, you are likely you will misplace it.

Gel support with band

The drawback of the above two designs is you can’t wear them inside the home. This gel support with the band serves the purpose. Just wear it on your foot and you are ready to use without the shoes. You can also use this with your sandals.

How to measure flat foot

Though, the arch support you need to buy depends on the size of your foot. But it would be interesting to learn how flat is your feet.

There are two ways to measure the flat foot, one using the footprints, and the second is feiss line test. The latter is a bit technical, so let’s do it with the footprint method.

For this, take a piece of cardboard or carton, and a tub of normal water (colored water would be good). Place your feet on the tub and wet your feet. Next, place your feet over the cardboard and stand over it.

Stand firmly for a few seconds, you would see a footprint as in the picture below. Notice the curve on the inner side of the footprint. The shallow the curve, the more is the degree of flat foot.

Other things to consider in flat foot

Flat feet may happen due to various reasons like genetic predisposition, paralysis, foot muscle weakness, trauma, diseases ( Rheumatoid arthritis) this arch gets flattened leading to a flat foot.

To maintain the arch we also have to concentrate on what kind of shoes or sandals we use. We need to slightly modify the footwear so that it assists in maintaining the arch.

Final word

No doubt our foot takes the weight of the whole body and a slight change in the normal foot alignment, if ignored for a longer period, may result in foot pain. A flat foot is one of these conditions but secondary to it one may also develop “Plantar fascitis”.

The aim of the treatment is pain relief and improving and maintaining the medial arch of the foot. We have already discussed pain-relieving techniques and exercises to improve the arch of the foot in our previous article. You may read it here “What Causes Sharp Heel Pains? 11 Easy Exercises To Fix It Permanently”.  

Keep Reading: How to use silicone heel cup for pain-free heel

Sunit. S. Ekka

Dr Sunit Sanjay Ekka is a physiotherapist in practice for the last 15 years. He has done his BPT from one of the premium Central Government physiotherapy colleges, ie, SVNIRTAR. The patient is his best teacher and whatever he gets to learn he loves to share it on his Youtube channel and blog.