"Best" orthotic vs "Worst" orthotic

Nat:

Let me give you another perspective, so that I can add some of my experiences to temper the glowing testimonial you have just given for Sole Support Labs.

I was invited to lecture in Oklahoma City last year on biomechanics, sports medicine and foot orthoses. I just so happened to be sitting down to dinner with a number of podiatrists who had invited me to lecture for their conference in Oklahoma City. During dinner, they mentioned that they, in the two months before my lecture, had Ed Glaser give what they called an "informercial" about his lab and his ideas about orthoses. Three of the podiatrists at the table had started using the "Bottom Block method" and the "MASS method" of casting and using his "Sole Support insoles". Two of them said they had more problems with patients not tolerating the high arch of the Sole Support orthoses and only had about one in four patients actually like the orthoses enough to wear them. The third one said that about half the Sole Support orthoses worked well for his patients. Two of the three podatrists I talked to soon quit using Sole Support orthoses due to the numerous problems their patients had with the orthoses. That certainly did not seem too impressive to me.

 

I am picking up some passive aggressiveness in your choice of words, "to temper the glowing testimonial." My results have exceeded what they were with Root-type orthotics, so do I need to be convinced otherwise?

Perhaps others have not had the same results as I, but in the end it does not matter to me what they do. Ultimately all that matters is that I use the most effective treatment I can for my patients. Maybe I have poor neutral suspension casting skills or poor understanding of Root-type orthotic function, but if that's the case so be it. Glaser's system works very well for me. I dispense about 10-15 orthotics per month and I can recall failures in three cases over the last year-and-a-half.

 

No, what you picked up is an aggressive passivity or maybe it's an aggressive aggressiveness, I can never remember which one I am.

 

Thank you Robert. Very professional of you.

 

Glad you approve

I'm sorry Nat its just we have spent SO LONG chewing this over in this and other threads. It was interesting to begin with. Then it became fun. Then it became tiresome. Now its just plain dull. Go back and read the pages and pages and PAGES of posts on MASS and maybe you'll understand.

Kevin i'm pretty sure you were'nt being Aggressive aggressive, you can tell by the way your post did'nt have "Simon Spooner" written above it and the lack of references to peeling babies and suchlike.

See the difference?

Warmest Felicitations

Robert

 

Robert,

I just ran across this forum yesterday so this thread was one of the first in which I took interest. I haven't yet run across the numerous other threads to which you refer. I didn't mean to bore you guys, but I think you still have at least enough interest in it to take the time to flame me.

Nat

 

Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy you're time here. I mean that. Don't take anything too seriously, don't give up, and be assured that we have all been flamed from time to time. With the possible exception of Simon. Who is frankly quite scary in high gear. As a rule we don't flame people, we flame views.

You picked a helluva thread to start with!

Regards
Robert

 

Nat:

If you think that me giving an alternative viewpoint to the products and ideas that one orthosis lab generates is "flaming" then maybe your heat sensitivity is set a little bit too high to be contributing to this forum. However, certainly if you want to discuss this topic further and don't mind others simply disagreeing with you, then you should continue participating. It is all up to you, Nat.

Maybe if you started by giving us your last name and then describing some of your experiences with your orthosis failures that you had using more traditional biomechanics techniques and orthosis techniques, then we could have a good discussion. However, when I know personally literally hundreds of podiatrists all over the world who don't have a problem using STJ neutral position orthoses to treat their many patients, I wonder why you would have such difficulty using these time-tested techniques to make orthoses that are valuable for your patients.

 

Kevin, the "flaming" comment was directed at Robert for the image of the baby he posted.

As I said, I will leave the biomechanical discussion up to you all. I have no interest in it. I wanted to provide my own anecdote.

Nat

 

Nat:

I can't get mad at Robert, even though I never met the gentleman, since he just sent me my own copy of Craig Payne's DVD on "Biomechanical Assessment". [By the way, Robert, thanks for that.]

It is really too bad that you have no interest in our biomechanical discussion on foot orthoses. That then leaves me to ponder, if you have no interest in the biomechanical discussion of orthoses or of why the Bottom Block method works so well for you and your patients, why did you even post to this list about your positive experiences with Sole Support orthoses?

Is this because you have no interest in biomechanical discussions in general or because you just don't want to discuss this topic in this forum? I would think that if a medical professional entered into a discussion on a topic such as the anecdotal efficacy of one orthosis lab's foot orthoses, especially in a thread that had remained dormant for over 8 months, that the medical professional would not only expect and hope for replies to their comments, but also would be then willing to participate in explaining themselves further as to why they feel their anecdotal observations should be viewed by others as being valuable.

Maybe I just don't understand your logic, Nat, but why make the comments in the first place to this list if you "have no interest in" biomechanical discussion on the subject??

 

Robert:

Simon Spooner scary??? The only time I saw Dr. Spooner being scary is when I saw him trying to impress me with his basketball skills at my hoop in my driveway a few years ago....Chris Nester and Ray Anthony were equally as scary as Simon when they were also attempting to show me their basketball skills.........don't any of you UK podiatrists grow up with basketballs in your hands like many of us Yankee podiatrists have? Or do you spend your youth with footballs (i.e. soccer balls) at your feet, and rugby balls and cricket balls in your hands? I guess it does make sense, since basketball is one of the few truly original American sports.

 

yes i was thinking the same as i read the previous post, but Mr Spooner's posts are a must read for their content, always damn good posts, mark c

 

Very true. And often highly amusing.

Oh sure you can. I'd be faintly disappointed if you did'nt with some of the stupid ***t i post when i'm not concentrating. Happy memories of the casual use of the word calibrated in one of my posts. Won't make THAT mistake again. Your "flames" may not be as obvious as Simons but they have a certain elegant finesse.

Thats what makes this forum such fun.

I remember him looking a bit wild around the eyes at the Oxford summer school (2005 i beleive) when somebody asked him about the use of marigold to decrease IM angles!

How very DARE you. We did basketball for a full term when I was at school. Don't know why they make the balls so damn hard though. It really hurts when you kick them and they don't fly worth a damn!

cute baby though.

Regards
Robert

 

Thank you all for your kind words.
.

Scary? I call it as I see it. If I argue my points aggressively, that's because I'm passionate and I have gonads. If you don't like it, add me to your ignore list.

I'll admit that I am quite scarry; one on my hand, one on my elbow and one on my knee, to count just three...

 

Simon:

Classic quote above. Wish I had said it first. The word "passionate" has also been used to describe my public disagreements with Root theorists and ignorant podiatric surgeons at many podiatry meetings over the past 22 years. I like to think of "being passionate" as being a positive personality trait, even though those with less passion seem to find it somewhat uncomfortable to be around someone expressing this type of emotion.

I say: Simon, keep up the good work.

 

Thanks Kevin,
Perhaps I should change my signature tag line to the above.