3D Scan Personalised Pad

Personalized Insoles: Innovation for Foot Health with 3D Scan Technology

Good foot health is the foundation of a quality daily life. Foot pain, flat feet, or other foot disorders can affect walking, balance, and overall quality of life. Customized insoles are an effective solution to correct and alleviate these symptoms. With today's technological advancements, we can create insoles that are precise and meet individual needs like never before.

What is a personalized insole and why is it important?

Custom Foot Orthotics are devices that are designed and manufactured to support the specific shape of each individual's feet, taking into account the user's anatomy, foot problems, and daily activities, unlike ready-made insoles that are often made to standard sizes, which may not be able to solve individual problems directly.

Personalized insoles play an important role in:

• Balance and align your feet: Helps organize feet, ankles and legs in proper alignment, reducing unwanted impact on joints.
• Reduce pain:Relieve pain caused by conditions such as flat feet, plantar fasciitis, hallux valgus or back pain related to foot problems.
• Increased movement efficiency: Helps you walk, run or do other activities more efficiently and reduces the risk of injury.
• Distributing pressure:Helps distribute weight and pressure evenly on the soles of the feet, reducing specific weight bearing points.

Entering a new era of insole design: 3D scanning via smartphones and tablets

In the past, creating a personalized insole often required taking a plaster print of your foot, which can be inconvenient and time-consuming. Today, 3D scanning technology plays an important role, making this process easier and more accurate. By using iOS and Android smartphones and tablets With a specialized application, you can quickly and accurately scan your feet in 3D. The data obtained from the scan is then sent to a specialist to design and produce an insole that is specifically designed for your feet.

Advantages of 3D scanning via smartphone/tablet:

• Convenient and accessible: Can be done anywhere, anytime. No need to travel to a clinic to take foot prints.
• fast: It only takes a few minutes to scan.
• precise:Provides detailed and accurate foot shape information to enable proper insole design.
• Reduce errors: Reduce the potential errors that can occur with traditional foot prints

After you scan and submit the information, your insoles will be produced within approximately 3-4 weeks This is a time that is essential for meticulous design, production and quality control.

Materials and manufacturing techniques: For maximum efficiency

The personalized insoles we’re talking about typically use two main materials with distinctive properties:

1. Thermoplastic(thermoplastic):It is a strong, durable material that can be molded with heat and holds its shape well after molding. It is suitable for insoles that require effective foot movement control.
2. EVA(Ethylene-vinylacetate):It is a lightweight, flexible foam material with good shock absorption properties, suitable for insoles that emphasize shock absorption and comfort. The production of personalized insoles uses a variety of Podiatry (foot medicine) techniques to achieve the most suitable results for each individual, including:

• Modified Root Technique (Intrinsic and Extrinsic Alter Angle): It is a basic technique used to correct flat feet by adjusting the angle of the insole both intrinsically and extrinsically to control proper foot movement [1].
• UCBLTechnique(UniversityofCalifornia Biomechanics Laboratory):It is a technique designed to control foot movement, particularly in people with severe flat feet, by emphasizing heel and midfoot support to reduce foot twisting [2].
• MedialHeelSkive:It is a technique used to adjust the inward slope of the heel to reduce pronation and increase heel-toe support [3].
• Inverted Blake: It is a technique used in cases where severe flat feet are required to be corrected by modifying the shape of the insole into an inverted cup to control the movement of the heel and forefoot [4].
• Accommodative Insole in Offloading: It is an insole designed to reduce pressure and distribute weight in problem areas, such as diabetic patients with foot ulcers or those with specific pain areas, with an emphasis on comfort and reducing friction [5].

Who is suitable for using personalized insoles?

• People who have foot pain, heel pain, arch pain, or forefoot pain: Whether it's plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, hammertoe, or pain from standing or walking for long periods of time.
• People with flat feet (Pes Planus): Especially in cases where the flat feet are more than 15 degrees or more than 20 degrees, which often require correction and control of foot movement.
  • Flat feet more than 15 degrees:Modified Root or Medial Heel Skive techniques are often used in conjunction with Thermoplastic materials for strong control.
  • Flat feet more than 20 degrees: More aggressive control techniques such as UCBL or Inverted Blake may be required in combination with Thermoplastic materials to achieve proper foot alignment and significantly reduce torsion.

• People with high feet (Pes Cavus): To help distribute pressure and reduce impact.
• sportsperson:To improve sports performance and reduce the risk of injury.
• Elderly:To help increase walking stability and reduce the risk of falls.
• Diabetic patients:To prevent and treat foot complications such as foot ulcers by using the Accommodative Insole technique in Offloading.
• Children with flat feet: Early correction in young children (ages 6-12) of flexible flatfoot with excessive joint movement and pain can help to improve bone and muscle alignment over the long term, which may result in improved foot angle changes. The results of changing the angle of the foot may vary from person to person and depend on the severity of the problem and consistent use of the insole.

summarize

Customized insoles using 3D scanning technology via smartphones and tablets are revolutionizing the field of podiatry, making quality foot care more accessible. Using state-of-the-art materials and standard manufacturing techniques from Podiatry, you will receive an insole that meets your individual needs, relieves pain, improves mobility and leads to a sustainable improvement in your quality of life.

Sittipong Meepakdee Pod med , Adv clinical pod. Podiatrist

Author

References:

[1] Kirby, KA (2012). Foot and lower extremity biomechanics: A ten-year collection of precision intrinsic casts and custom foot orthoses. Precision Intrinsic Cast.

[2] Subotnick, S.I. (1975). The UCBL shoe insert: a clinical evaluation. Journal of the American Podiatry Association, 65(9), 903-909.

[3] Fuller, E. A. (2000). The medial heel skive orthotic technique. Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, 90(2), 79-84.

 [4] Blake, R.L. (1993). Inverted orthoses for the severely pronated foot. Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, 83(10), 633-636.

[5] Rogers, LC, Frykberg, RG, Armstrong, DG, Boulton, AJM, Edmonds, M., Van Gils, CC, … & Working Group of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot. (2011). The Charcot foot in diabetes. Diabetes Care, 34(9), 2123-2129.