Corrective Shoes vs. Prescription Shoes: What’s the Difference?

Corrective Shoes vs. Prescription Shoes: What’s the Difference? 

Shoes provide protection and comfort to the feet, but they can be used as a treatment or therapy in some cases. In diabetes, for example, shoes play a critical role in stabilizing, protecting, and supporting the healing of deformed, injured, or post-operative feet. Other cases that merit “shoe therapy” include foot deformities like hammertoe, foot injures, and foot pain.

In these different scenarios, a podiatrist can recommend corrective shoes, prescription shoes, or both. Depending on your foot issue and the treatment approach your foot specialist recommends, knowing the difference between corrective and prescription shoes will help you understand how each will help your feet.

Corrective Shoes

What are corrective shoes?

Corrective shoes are non-custom shoes with several characteristics that make them appropriate to support the feet in a specific way. For example, well-padded shoes can be used as corrective shoes for individuals with heel pain. Similarly, open-toe shoes can offer support after hammertoe surgery.

In general, your foot specialist will recommend corrective shoes in instances where off-the-shelf shoes are appropriate for the required support. As such, they might recommend you purchase a specific type of shoe from a particular shop or brand that they know will give you the necessary support.

Corrective Shoe Characteristics

• Accommodate, stabilize, and support: Corrective shoes offer extensive support to prevent pain and further injury, especially when the foot is deformed.
• Limit motion: Corrective shoes limit joint motion and movement to stabilize the foot, reduce inflammation, and generally make the feet more functional despite pain and deformity.
• Reduce shock and shear: Corrective shoes significantly reduce shock (vertical pressure) and shear (horizontal pressure), which can help minimize motion-based pain.
• Relieve excessive pressure: Wider or well-padded corrective shoes relieve areas of extreme pressure that can lead to ulcers or other skin problems.

Prescription Shoes

What are prescription shoes? 

Prescription shoes are custom-made shoes or parts of a shoe made to fit your exact foot requirements. Foot orthoses or orthotics are prescription shoe inserts designed and manufactured for individual shoe support needs.

Other prescription shoes include ankle-foot orthotics (AFO), Ulcer Healing Orthotics (UHO), and Knee-ankle-foot orthotics (KAFO).

Prescription shoes are typically recommended to support the foot in flat foot, over-pronation/over supination, and plantar fasciitis cases.

Prescription Shoe Characteristics

• Custom-made: Prescription shoes are designed and manufactured to fit an individual’s specific needs, requiring detailed foot measurements to achieve this outcome.
• Internal or external modifications: Prescription shoes have internal or external alterations like extra padding, extra room, or a higher heel to fit an individual’s foot needs.
• In-depth shoe design: Most prescription shoes have ¼ to ½ inch additional depth to accommodate shoe inserts, extra padding, or other modifications.

Corrective Shoes vs. Prescription Shoes: The Verdict

Corrective and prescription shoes help treat and support the feet to reduce pain, accelerate healing and prevent further injury. In some cases, the distinction can be blurry, especially when treating multiple foot issues. Nevertheless, both shoes play an essential role in ensuring individuals with foot problems can move around with less pain.