Do Shoe Lifts "Fix" Leg Length Discrepancy or Just Manage Symptoms?

Step Rite Shoe Lifts

A shoe lift corrects the difference at the ground, where the body feels it. With the lift on, the pelvis is level and the walk is even. Bone-lengthening surgery exists for large differences in growing children and is a surgeon's decision; for most adults and most differences, the lift is the correction clinicians recommend.

What "correct" means

A level pelvis and an even walk, every time you stand in the shoe. That is what the back, the hips, and the knees care about.

Where surgery fits

Limb lengthening is major surgery, used mostly for large differences in children who are still growing. Surgeons decide it case by case. For adults, and for the half inch to two inches that most people are dealing with, the lift is the treatment.

Mayo Clinic's advice

Asked about a leg that was longer after hip replacement, Mayo Clinic's answer was that a lift in the other shoe is the fix and there is no medical reason against it.

Living with it

Every pair lifted, reorders with the same specs. "I have had many vendors the past 14 years, and you are by far the best," wrote Deb, who has been wearing lifts for that long.