What does a podiatrist do?
I often get asked ‘what made you want to work with smelly feet every day?’
My answer is simple; when your feet are in a bad way, it makes everything else in your life a lot harder.
Your feet are amazing structures that house a quarter of the bones in your entire body, as well as many more various muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints.
Our feet carry us around every day for the entirety of your lifetime and are therefore vulnerable to injury and problems that can affect the rest of the body, as well as disrupting your lifestyle.
When people come to see me, I often get comments like ‘you went to university for four years to cut toenails?’ or ‘I thought all podiatrists do was make orthotics’.
YES! We do both of these things, but we also do so much more!!!
Now that we’ve entered 2023, you may be thinking about your goals for the next year.
Let’s talk about how podiatrists can help you to achieve these!!!
What is a Podiatrist?
Podiatrists are lower limb experts who are university-trained to prevent, diagnose, treat and rehabilitate conditions of the feet and lower limbs.
Podiatrists will help to find the underlying cause of these conditions and will work with you to best manage your foot and lower limb health.
Injury Management
Podiatrists can manage both acute and chronic injuries of the lower limb.
This can include (but is not limited to) heel pain, arch pain, forefoot pain, toe pain, ankle pain, shin pain, Achilles and calf pain, knee and hip pain.
Podiatrists are able to formulate a management plan with you on how to best treat your problem.
Here at Complete Podiatry, we use a three-step approach to getting you back to doing the things you love.
A complete management plan is given to every new client
The first step is to offload the damaged tissue by using appropriate footwear, insoles, and orthoses.
The second step is to improve the health of the damaged tissue through soft tissue modalities such as shockwave therapy, foot mobilisation, trigger point dry needling, taping and massage.
The last step in ensuring we can get you back on your feet and keep you pain-free is by setting you an exercise program to make your tissues stronger.
Orthoses
Foot orthoses work by altering the way the force generated by your foot hitting the ground affects your feet, legs, and body.
Podiatrists can design you orthoses to specifically help your foot and leg pain and get you back on your feet.
Here at Complete Podiatry we use the latest in 3D laser scanning and digital-design software to take an accurate model of your feet and then make the best orthoses for your feet.
We use the latest 3D laser scanning to get an accurate model of your feet
Children’s Assessments
Normal growth and development are vital to keeping our kids healthy, active and doing the things they love.
Children are not just little adults and are susceptible to a whole range of different problems with their feet and legs.
Children are susceptible to a whole range of problems with their feet and legs
Podiatrists are trained to assess, manage and treat children of all ages for a range of conditions including sports-related injuries, growing pains and growth plate issues, and skin and nail problems.
Footwear Assessments and Advice
Great foot health starts with the right shoe!
Podiatrists are trained to assess your footwear, as well as the biomechanics of your feet and legs, and can recommend the right pair of shoes for you.
At Complete Podiatry, we stock a variety of footwear including Asics, Revere, Vionic and Dr Comfort.
We can also point you in the right direction to some great shoe shops and guide you on making appropriate choices.
General Podiatry Care
Podiatrists manage nail and skin conditions of the feet and lower limbs.
If you have problems with thickened or discoloured nails, or simply can’t see or reach your feet to manage your own nail care, we can manage this for you through regular general podiatric care.
As our feet work so hard day in and day out, we can often develop pressure areas where callus (hard, dead skin) or painful corns can form.
General podiatry care for your skin and nail health
Podiatrists can help to manage this through regular general podiatric care and can provide offloading strategies and footwear advice to help stop these from coming back.
Ingrown Toenail Management
If you have difficult to manage and recurrent ingrown toenails, podiatrists can help to manage these.
Depending on the structure of the nail and your overall health status, ingrown nails can be managed through regular conservative care.
However, if this does not provide adequate relief, podiatrists can perform nail surgery, whereby the offending piece of nail is removed under a local anaesthetic and a chemical is used to stop the nail from growing back, giving a permanent solution to your ingrowing nail problems.
Fungal Toenail Treatment
If your toenails are crumbly, discoloured and thickened, then you may have a fungal toenail infection.
Podiatrists can help you to manage and treat the nail fungus.
Here at Complete Podiatry we offer photodynamic therapy via the PACTMED system to treat nail fungus.
The PactMed system to treat fungal nails
Wart Treatment
Foot warts are painful lesions caused by a viral infection of the skin that can spread easily.
Podiatrists can treat warts and can help you to prevent them from coming back.
At Complete Podiatry, we use a combination of mild acid applications and a procedure done under a local anaesthetic to treat foot warts.
Warts are very common
We Are Here To Help
These are just some of the things Podiatrists can do!!!
As you can see, it’s more than just cutting toenails or making orthoses- it’s about helping you achieve your goals and doing the things you love by giving you a strong base to do it from!
If you are experiencing foot and leg problems, the first thing to do is book an appointment with one of the Podiatrists at Complete Podiatry for a comprehensive assessment to identify what is causing your problem.
Once this is done, we will develop a structured management plan that outlines our best advice for how to stop your pain and help you to return to doing the things you love to do.
I'm so confident we can help your foot and leg problems that I'd love to chat with you personally, it's what I'm passionate about!
Just send us a message or call us & I'll be more than happy to explain how we can help you build an amazing life from the feet up!
Administrator
Complete Podiatry