Buying dress shoes for plantar fasciitis can be a difficult process for anyone who may be suffering from this nasty medical condition. This is because most dress shoes aren’t made for comfort, support, or performance—things that are often thought of as prerequisite when purchasing a shoe that is supposed to help heal a mild to moderate case of plantar fasciitis.
Dress shoes are instead made essentially for appearance, and can therefore rarely provide the necessary level of comfort and support that is needed to prevent further injury to the plantar fascia, and to foster a healing environment.
That being said, sometimes patients are forced into wearing dress shoes for certain occasions, or even on a regular basis for work, or other sorts of mandatory activities. When this is the case, a number of factors must be taken into consideration when attempting to select an appropriate pair of shoes. While most of these factors are not that much different than the basics tenets that should be adhered to when choosing shoes for plantar fasciitis, there are a few different things that should be taken into account.
Critical Factors to Consider
These include whether or not the particular dress shoe may have any added padding or cushioning, whether or not the dress shoe has laces or not, and whether the dress shoe has a large heel or uneven bottom. The best dress shoes for plantar fasciitis should have the appropriate amount of cushioning and padding present in the inside of the shoe in order to provide the foot with the appropriate level of support and motion control.
Dress shoes that do not have any additional padding or cushioning and are instead made only with a single layer of material such as leather will not shield the foot against further stress, and can actually damage the fascia even more if worn on a regular basis.
Dress shoes that do not have laces can also damage the fascia because they often fit very loosely on the foot, and can therefore slide and shift around thus impacting the fascia in a negative manner. Dress shoes with laces can at least provide a snug fit that can adapt to the contours of the foot while providing a minimal level of motion control.
Dress shoes without laces will often convey added pressure to the bottom of the foot especially during movement, and should therefore be avoided the vast majority of time if a recovery and a reduction in pain is aimed for. Lastly, dress shoes with a very high heel or a very uneven bottom should be avoided because of the added stress they place on the fascia.
These kinds of shoes essentially do the exact opposite of what a good orthotic or shoe should do for the fascia, as they will often bend the foot in way that will cause the fascia to become even more damaged and inflamed over time.
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