Our Foot & Ankle Care FAQ

Yes. Especially if you are competitive or do extensive mileage each week.  Experience has shown us that when the orthotics place the bones of the foot in a more corrected and structurally aligned position, this necessitates less energy expenditure by the muscles of the foot and leg as the bones of the foot lock together and in essence, stay aligned during the thousands of "up and down pistoning motions" while cycling. 

Conversely, when the foot is not in its ideal structural position, it necessitates the muscles of the foot and lower leg to work harder to keep nudging the bones of the foot back into their ideal alignment.  This done over and over during the hours and thousands of downstrokes of the cycling action, causes the muscles to work much harder and predisposes them and even the bones of the foot to injury from overuse.  

Almost one for one, the cyclists who use these types of orthotics in their cycling shoes have relayed they go faster and longer using less energy and experiencing significantly less "fatigue" during cycling.  Depending on the style of cycle shoe, you may necessitate a pair specifically for that activity but for the most part, the orthotics that you can put into your sneakers or lace-up dress shoes fit into cycling shoes. 

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics  in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

The answer to this frequently asked question is in fact neither.  This is to say that neither a "hard" or "soft" orthotic is better or in fact ideal.  An orthotic, when properly made, should be hard enough to gently support and realign the bones of your foot yet be soft enough to compress slightly during activity to allow your foot to function properly.  Your foot is dynamic - it is not rigid or static in nature.  Therefore, the best performing orthotic is one that is dynamic because it both supports and flexes in a controlled manor during activity.  The Total Contact Orthotics your doctor uses does just that.

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics  in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

An Ankle-foot orthotic is a brace, usually made of plastic that supports your foot, ankle and lower leg.  Ankle-foot orthotics are used in cases where there is a need to support not just the foot but also the ankle in a more controlled and restrictive manner.  Often the patient that requires this type of device has had or needs major reconstructive foot and ankle surgery, has a neuromuscular disease, or has had some degree of nerve damage which requires more than the standard degree of support offered by a foot orthotic alone.

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

If your doctor has recommended that you get a custom functional orthotic because your problem is based on a fundamental instability you have in your bone structure which results in your body going out of its proper alignment, it is wise to way out the long term ramifications of not addressing this instability now rather than wait till later.  Remember that this misalignment is the cause of the aches and pains that brought you to your doctor in the first place. 

The orthotics that your doctor uses correct and restores normal alignment and function which almost always results in better alignment and factually speaking - better alignment means greater comfort!  Often our doctors relay to us that their patients say that the realignment of their feet leads to less ankle, knee, hip, and low back pain in addition to addressing the heel or arch pain that they came to the doctor to get handled.

The point is that not restoring proper alignment can lead to further problems in the future, not just in your feet, but higher up in the various joints and muscles of your entire body.  If an orthotic can help prevent these things as your doctor has advised, then you simply run the risk of developing problems in the future if you ultimately decide not to get them.

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

You need to break in an orthotic because the orthotic changes the way you walk by changing the alignment of the bones of your foot into a more corrective position.  This change of position, despite being of great benefit to the foot and the rest of the body, changes the way that the muscles move and function in a relatively short period of time.  This change can be dramatic because it causes many muscles that were working too hard to work less hard and conversely, muscles that were not doing their fair share to suddenly snap to and do their share of the work.

We use a gradual, common sense break-in period that generally increases your orthotic wear a few hours each day until you are wearing them comfortably full time within a one to two week period.

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

If your plan covers orthotics at all, it will typically allow you to get another pair after a certain period of time has passed. Often, this is one new pair per year, but sometimes the waiting period is longer.

Regardless of what your insurance company will or will not cover, a key benefit of the custom orthotics package from Austin Foot and Ankle is that it includes any needed adjustments or reorders of your initial two pairs of orthotics at no extra cost to you, should you not be completely satisfied with your results. Frankly, these new 3D-printed orthotics are so well made, and adjustments are so rarely needed, that we’re more than happy to provide this guarantee. Your satisfaction is our top priority!

That said, if your plan does cover the cost of a new pair of orthotics every year (or any other term), we highly encourage you to take advantage of it—even if your initial two pairs are still going strong. After all, while two pairs are better than one, three pairs are better than two!

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics  in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

Many, although certainly not all, insurance plans offer coverage for custom orthotics if they are determined to be medically necessary by a qualified professional. (We are, of course, the qualified professionals in this scenario.)

Please keep in mind that our orthotics program provides you with two pairs of orthotics, while most insurances unfortunately will only cover the cost of one pair. In our experience, distributing two pairs is a lot better for our patients and leads to significantly better long-term outcomes on average—which is why a second pair is always included in our orthotics package. Not only will each pair last longer due to reduced wear and tear, but you can get orthotics for different purposes (e.g., the second pair could be specially designed for your dress shoes or for sports).

Are You Considering Custom Orthotics in Austin, TX?

If you are considering custom orthotics, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

If you aren’t already one of our patients, you probably should start with this question. Although the vast majority of insurance plans cover podiatry appointments, they may require a referral from your general practitioner before extending coverage—especially if your health care plan is an HMO.

Are You Looking for a Foot Care Specialist in Austin, TX?

If you are looking for foot care, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

Overall, the risks are very low. This is one of the safest treatments we offer.

Mild side effects might include a bit of tenderness or redness at the injection site, lasting at most a couple of days after the procedure. No major side effects have been reported. Again, this is largely due to the immunoprivileged nature of perinatal tissue.

Remember as well that this tissue is only taken from scheduled C-sections, so doctors have a lot of time in advance to make sure the donor tissue is healthy. That’s followed by rigorous secondary screening, sterilization, and cryopreservation. By the time the tissue is ready to be used as an injectable, the risk of any contamination is remote.

Furthermore, because perinatal tissue injections do not require any kind of accompanying injection of medications (including anesthesia), there’s really nothing else that could cause any kind of adverse reaction. All of the “ingredients” being injected are natural components that your body already uses anyway.

Are You Looking for a Perinatal Tissue Care Specialist in Austin, TX?

If you are looking for a perinatal tissue care specialist, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online, or call our Austin office at 512-328-8900.

Unlike other types of organ or tissue transplants from donors, there is virtually no risk of rejection with perinatal tissue injections.

This is a special property of perinatal tissue. Since baby’s body and mom’s body aren’t necessarily biologically compatible, the perinatal tissue is naturally “immunoprivileged,” acting as a defensive barrier to prevent mom’s immune system from mistakenly attacking the growing fetus.

The unintended but very welcome benefit of this state of affairs is that your body won’t attack perinatal tissue either after an injection. You don’t have to be pregnant or even female for it to work.

Are You Looking for a Perinatal Tissue Care Specialist in Austin, TX?

If you are looking for perinatal tissue care, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online or call our Austin office at 512.328.8900.

Injections made from perinatal or amniotic tissue are sometimes advertised as a “stem cell” therapy, but that’s misleading at best.

Although perinatal tissue does naturally contain stem cells, by the time the tissue makes its way to the injectable form, there are no living stem cells remaining.

However, the growth factors and other key proteins that remain in the injectable material help “recruit” the stem cells you already have in your own body, directing them to the site of injury to repair the damage.

So it would be fair to say that stem cells are involved, but they are your own stem cells. You are not being injected with them.

Are You Looking for a Perinatal Tissue Care Specialist in Austin, TX?

If you are looking for perinatal tissue care, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online, or call our Austin office at 512-328-8900.

This is probably the most common question we get, and the good news is that you don’t have to worry!

Perinatal tissue is not fetal tissue. Instead, the tissue is gathered only after a healthy delivery by planned C-section. Mothers give their consent in advance to donate the tissue, and neither the mother nor the baby are harmed (or even affected) in any way.

Normally, perinatal tissue would simply be discarded as “medical waste,” but this way it can be reused to provide healing to others!

Are You Looking for a Perinatal Tissue Care Specialist in Austin, TX?

If you are looking for a perinatal tissue care specialist, you should reach out to an experienced podiatrist. Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists can help. Our office provides a wide variety of advanced, effective treatment options for all kinds of painful conditions. Ready to schedule an appointment? Contact us online, or call our Austin office at 512-328-8900.