A famous saying “you don’t understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes” is true both from psychological as well as medical point of view. A worn-out shoe isn’t just some old piece of footwear but it has a whole story to it. Just by looking at the patterns by which a person damages their shoes over time can tell a lot about their lifestyle, commute, habitat, gait and so much more. But most importantly, when the wearing out is in accordance with a specific pattern in one pair of shoes after another, then this can indicate serious medical conditions as well.
Patterns could be on the inside as well outside of the shoe. A recurring inner side pattern indicates that either the shoes are or wrong size I-e too tight, too short or in some cases the shape of the shoe is wrong for the shape of the foot.
The outer wear patterns are basically the specific point from which the surface of shoes initially starts to tear off, rupture or atleast scratch off. Some of the frequently observed medical conditions are as follows:
Neutral wear pattern: It is also called as Normal wear pattern where the scratching off occurs in the middle area of the shoe between the fingers and heels. As the weight of the body is expressed upon the shoes, the central area of sole & heels is most used and rubbed off. Some of the common features are:
This pattern is seen in the safest form of gait where the chances for twisting and falling off are very low since the equilibrium is maintained from all sides.
The chances of vertebral displacement or backaches is lower than for supinated and pronated types.
Overpronation pattern: some people have naturally flexible limbs and feet. Therefore, as the heel to toe transfer of force occurs during walking, the inside of feet rolls more thus causing shoe wear off from inner side of toe and heels.
Overpronation is also known as medial wear pattern tends to cause many health issues such as chronic pain in feet and legs in addition to shin and pelvic pain due to inner gait. The tibial bone is exerted with most force thus leading to a condition called medial tibial stress syndrome.
Some overpronators also experience severe pain in the posterior side of the tibial bone. This is due to the fact that tibial tendons are being stretched and pulled far more than their capacity causing tibialis tendon dysfunction
Supportive inner soles in the shoes are helpful in correcting the gait.
Under pronation pattern: In some cases, the feet move outward putting the most force on the lateral sides of the feet. This is referred to as Supination. Supinator tends to have wear pattern on the outer side of the shoe I-e towards the pinky toe and lateral sides of heels.
Under pronation is a rare case and require cushioning support in the shoes to correct the condition.
It possesses serious health hazard such as damage to the outer portion of thighs and knee joint causing severe pain and swelling called as medial tibial stress syndrome.
All the above-mentioned conditions can now be easily diagnosed and corrected. At Shapecrunch, we make Custom Orthotics and Orthopedic Sandals to correct your overpronation and under pronation of the foot.
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