Teresa Thorpe

Title

Certified Orthotist

I am an American Board-Certified Orthotist since 1998.  I completed the post graduate certificate programs in orthotics and prosthetics at Northwestern University Prosthetic-Orthotic Center in 1996 and 1998 respectively.  Orthotics was my first love and remains my main focus.  I initially worked with a geriatric patient population in Chicago, working directly with rehabilitation teams to improve patient function after sustaining life altering medical diagnoses.  I worked extensively with neurological and orthopedic diagnoses, physicians, and therapists that treat these individuals.  It was very rewarding designing and fabricating orthoses from head to toe for these senior patients, fabricating them, fitting them, and then witnessing how what I made improved their daily lives.  As I told my patients when they asked how I got into this field, “I am the product of a nurse mother and carpenter father.”  I am trained in Walk Aide and Bioness FES.  I am trained in stance control KAFO designs.  I am certified to provide SAEBO upper extremity orthotics.  My favorite patients to work with are the ones with foot and ankle deformities w/ extreme pain when ambulating.  Aligning their ankles and feet to facilitate pain free ambulation is tricky, but when successful, it makes my day.  With selling my practice in 2014, I no longer fabricate what I fit, but the end result of helping people achieve greater function is still there.

As the years have passed and employment has changed for me, I have now gained a pediatric population.  I have completed Cascade DAFO and SureStep courses that help with designing pediatric lower extremity products.  I utilize the Benick upper extremity designs.  This year I completed the Orthomerica Starband course, something I initially completed in 2000 but never used.  I have now treated fifteen infants using Starband Cranial Remodeling technology.  I now am using my scoliosis knowledge to treat idiopathic scoliosis.  I have gained experience with Ponsetti AFO treatment.  It has been fun working with kids and their parents to help their child achieve normal growth milestones.