Are you experiencing any pain in your heels? Are you suffering from ingrown nails? Ignoring several foot conditions leads to challenging situations that affect your mobility. Hence, a person must contact a foot doctor.
Foot pain must not be ignored if it persists after a certain period. Whether it’s a heel pain or an ingrown nail, not considering the right treatment can account for mobility challenges. Chronic pain and infections can result if you ignore such symptoms.
Like other body organs, your foot also needs regular medical attention if there is a persistent problem. This blog explores the common symptoms and diseases while evaluating the need to visit a podiatry clinic.
What are the Key Causes of Heel Pain?
Are you experiencing a persistent pain in your heel? Before visiting a foot doctor, let’s understand the main causes.
Achilles Tendinitis
The Achilles Tendon is the connective tissue between your calf and your heel bone. Achilles Tendinitis is caused when a high level of stress is put on it. This causes pain in your heel, which sometimes becomes unbearable.
Bursitis
Bursitis is the swelling of the bursae, small fluid-filled sacs in the heel area. This takes place when you put too much pressure on the foot. If you witness pain while walking or running, this might be bursitis.
Plantar Fasciitis
This refers to inflammation in your foot’s plantar fascia. Plantar fasciitis occurs when the plantar fascia is highly overused, and this causes swelling. Hence, it is difficult for you to walk.
What are Ingrown Toenails?
Ingrown toenails refer to a condition where the corner of your toenail grows into the soft flesh. This accounts for pain, swelling, and skin inflammation. If left untreated, this can lead to cellulitis or abscesses.
The fundamental causes behind ingrown toenails are wearing poorly-fitting shoes, improper nail trimming, etc. What are the major symptoms of ingrown toenails? Well, infection, redness, swelling, etc., are the ones you need to consider.
Need for Medical Attention in Heel Pain or Ingrown Nails
Here are some symptoms that indicate that you must visit a podiatry clinic.
Consistent Pain
Are you experiencing pain in your heel for more than 2 weeks? Does this trouble you in walking? It’s time for you to see a foot doctor. This helps in the prevention of any further damage and any sort of inflammation in your foot.
Severe Pain
Foot movement becomes challenging if there is extreme pain in the heel. This indicates a high chance of any fracture. To rule this out, you must consult a podiatrist.
Painful Ingrown Nails
Are you witnessing pain in your ingrown toenails? Well, this can be a sign of infection. Seeing a healthcare professional is useful to stop it from spreading.
Infections
If you see any redness in the nails or get any bad odour around them, you must seek medical help immediately. This refers to infections, and visiting a podiatry clinic can help control them.
What are the Top Benefits of Seeking Help from a Podiatrist?
Getting medical attention from a foot doctor is important when you witness any pain in the heel or an infection in the ingrown nails. Let’s discuss why it is advantageous.
Accurate Diagnosis
A podiatrist possesses specialised knowledge in handling foot diseases. Based on his or her expertise, you can obtain a perfect diagnosis, and the main cause behind your foot condition is correctly identified. This reduces the chance of developing complications.
Offering Advanced Treatment Options
You will have access to multiple advanced treatment options if you visit a podiatric clinic. Like, the doctor can consider nail removal if you are dealing with ingrown nails. Several advanced treatments, like physical therapy, orthotics, etc., are provided as per the foot problems.
Designing Customised Treatment Plans
Seeking help from podiatrists results in creating tailored treatment plans. Before making any treatment plan, the doctor will consider the existing symptoms, your lifestyle, your medical history, and your preference. This has a higher chance of offering positive outcomes.
Improving Long-Term Foot Health
While seeing a foot doctor, you can receive ongoing foot care. Daily checkups ensure continuous monitoring of your feet. Hence, any problem is detected earlier, and timely intervention is ensured. This improves your foot health in the long term.
Home Care vs Professional Treatments
Several foot conditions can be treated at home. Well, you need to rely on professional help in several circumstances. Let’s check out.
| Conditions | Home care options | When to seek a doctor |
| Heel pain | Rest, ice massage, exercises, and painkillers | Severe and consistent pain and difficulty in walking |
| Ingrown nails | Nail trimming and applying antiseptics | Infection and severe pain |
Table 1: Home care options vs seeking medical help
Relying on the home care options even when you need medical attention is a foolish move. Keep this in mind.
Diagnosing Foot Problems: Top Procedures
To diagnose foot problems, doctors use different procedures. These include:
- Physical examination: This is the initial procedure through which you must go when you go to a podiatric clinic for any foot problem. A doctor physically examines your feet, joints, muscle strength, etc., to understand the main cause. Well, this does not give any conclusive evidence for most of the diseases.
- Gait analysis: Your gait (walking style) reveals a lot about the health of your feet. A podiatrists rely on it to identify any sort of abnormality.
- X-ray or MRI: These diagnostic tests are done by foot doctors when the interior side of your foot is to be examined in detail. This ensures an accurate diagnosis.
Here are some suitable treatments offered by the foot doctors for various causes of heel pain or ingrown nails.
| Conditions | Professional treatments | Recovery timeline |
| Plantar Fasciitis | Physical therapy and orthotics | Weeks to months |
| Ingrown Toenails | Antibiotics and nail removal | 1-2 weeks |
| Heel Spurs | Orthotics | Weeks to months |
| Achilles Tendinitis | Orthotics and physical therapy | 2-3 weeks (several months for serious cases) |
| Bursitis | Physical therapy and anti-inflammatory drugs | A few weeks to two months |
Table 2: Foot conditions and recommended professional treatments
How to Prevent Heel Pain and Ingrown Nails?
Here are some tips that people must follow to deal with heel pain and ingrown nails.
- Wear the right footwear while prioritising comfort and support
- Consider stretching exercises
- Prioritise nail trimming best practices
Conclusion
Nail problems have adverse effects on daily life if left untreated. Seeing a foot doctor helps in early intervention so that the best possible treatment can be availed. You need to visit a podiatrist if you have severe and persistent pain in your heel or an infection in an ingrown toenail.
Consulting a Foot Specialist
Are you dealing with foot pain for a couple of weeks? Treat it immediately so that this does not create a barrier to your mobility. Visit a renowned podiatry centre to get your feet checked.
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