How To Treat Flat Feet

Hello I'm Charles Goldman, a qualified Chiropodist/Podiatrist. I run “The Foot Pad” chiropody and physical therapy clinic in Coven, Central London. Today I'm going to talk to you about various foot problems and their treatment.

In this video were going to talk about the treatment of flat feet. The medical term for flat feet is ped planus. There are basically two types of flat feet, structural and acquired.

In a structural flat foot, the medial arch of the flat foot here hasn't fully developed. This can be observed in quite young children, although I wouldn't treat a child less than 9 0r 10 years old. The way to treat this is to give you an arch support.

It's the same for the functional flat or sorry, this is the same for a functional or acquired flat foot where the arch drops under load bearing. You can only get this on prescription from a chiropodist. Its not advisable to go to a chemist and buy them over the counter as the premanufactured ones are made to an average foot and most people don't have an average foot.

They need to be fitted properly to your feet. A chiropodist, podiatrist will carry out a biomechanical assessment measuring your gate, the angles in your foot, the rotations, etc. and give you an orthotic device or arch support that would suite you personally.

You will then wear this for several weeks and then come back and have any adjustments made. There are basically two types of orthotic you can get or arch support. One is a prescription orthotic where a cast is normally made of your foot and a computer analysis is taken and then manufactures in a lab to your specification.

Prescription orthotics are often made up of hard material like this polycarbonate or carbon fiber and the (sounds like: chest high orthotics are made out of thermo plastic like this. The advantages of these are they are adjustable on site. They are heat moldable and can be fitted and adjusted on the premises.

Once you wear them, you would find that this relieves the pain that you could possibly get from your knees and hips on the flat feet. And this is the way we treat flat feet.