Hi, my name is Dr. Jennifer Hudson. I’m a chiropractor here at Total Health Systems. At Total Health Systems we are a multidisciplinary practice. We touch on all facets of a patient’s health. The facet that I’m going to be talking about today is orthotics and basic foot health if you will. We use the orthotic gait scan. The orthotic Gait Scan, right down here we have the pad where we have a patient stand on. It has approximately 4,000 different sensors in there that detect the pressure of the person’s foot. An example of how I would have a patient do that is, first of all, I’d have them stand on top of the pad, as such. I would typically have them march in place and then come to a stop, staring straight ahead, and I would, with the computer, take a picture.
This is the type of picture that would end up showing on the screen. There are a couple different things I would be looking for. This has it divided up into quadrants. So I’m looking to see first of all if there’s more pressure on the front of the foot or the back of the foot. On this particular person, they had 20% of their weight on the front of their right foot and only 22% here in the back. So it lets me know there’s more pressure or more leaning towards their front right foot. You can also see that there’s different coloration. Essentially, the lighter colors are lighter pressure and of course vibrant, meaning the red, are more extensive pressure. If you want to see one optimal standard would look like this would be a classic foot in terms of the heel strike going into your mid stance and coming off of your toe loft.
Now, when you compare against this patient’s scan, if you will. You can see that they are definitely a person who really rests heavily on their heels, which can be an issue in terms of the knees, and of course, of the lower back, because it has your weight bearing joints as you regularly walk in from day-to-day. I’m also looking to see if their balance from side to side and you can see again, we’ve got 20% of weight over here, and only 23% of the weight there. So this gives me a fairer assessment in terms of the pressure points of the foot. The next thing that we do is the dynamic scan. And that is where we actually walk across the pad, and we can actually see how the foot is, in terms of its motion as it walks across. We do each foot. So first I’m going to do the one. And we walk across just like that. And the computer will record that. Then of course I would do that again with the other foot. After I would do that, this particular screen would come up. Basically, this is showing the right foot and the left foot. And, of course, this is showing the left going into dynamic scans. When it comes back around, you can see there’s the heel strike. It’s just levering through to the mid stance. And as the person goes off into a toe off.
When we see this particular picture there, that is an example of how the foot looked in terms of the combination of both the static and the dynamic combined. So we can see where the pressure points are, where the arc as the person is walking with their gait scan is actually like. With this information, we send it to the orthotic group and then they will actually build custom foot orthotics specifically designed to provide support for that person by their professional orthotics.
And that was a brief overview of how we check for orthotic supports. It’s key and imperative in terms of a person’s gait pattern. First of all, how it affects the foot, because there can be a multitude of issues that can happen with that, in terms of bone spurs, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis. From a chiropractic perspective, the other factors that we’re looking into. If a person’s gait pattern’s off and if they’re walking on the outside of their foot, or if they’re walking on the inside of their foot whatever is not in the norm. Those will affect the knee and it will affect the lower back and the weight bearing joints, which will, in turn, throw the rest of the body off. So, I hope you found this information helpful, thank you.
Total Health Systems Discusses Orthotics and Foot Health
For more information on Orthotics and Foot Health or to schedule a gait scan, please call Total Health Systems at 586-228-0270.
