Top 5 Most Common Issues Seen By A Podiatrist

Your foot is a strong, mechanical structure comprising of 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 tendons, muscles and ligaments. The load on the feet is consistent daily, and we expect them to take us the distance we want.

This intricate and highly developed structure needs a little care on a regular basis and with so many working parts, a regular trip to the podiatrist is a good investment in long term foot strength, and health.

If you’re wondering what that niggling feeling is in your foot, here’s a summary of the 5 most common foot problems and foot pain we see week to week. 

1. Plantar Fasciitis

When the plantar fascia is overstretched it becomes inflamed and that is what we call plantar fasciitis. 

Try to think of plantar fasciitis as a rope pulling away from the heel bone causing heel and arch pain.

If tension and stress on this becomes too much, it can lead to the development of small tears, causing irritation and inflammation. 

Pain may occur either where it inserts into the base of the heel bone causing heel pain, or along the sole of the foot between the heel and the toes.

 Plantar fasciitis can lead to intense, chronic heel pain if the cause of the pain is not addressed, with the severity varying person to person. 

2. Achilles Tendoniitis

One of the more common foot injuries that we treat is pain arising from the back of the heel in the achilles tendon.

Achilles tendonitis is inflammation and tendonosis is degeneration and irregular healing of the achilles tendon. 

The achilles tendon is the large tendon located in the back of the leg that inserts into the heel. The pain caused by achilles tendonitis/osis can develop gradually without a history of trauma. 

The pain can be a shooting pain, burning pain, or even an extremely piercing pain. Achilles tendonitis/osis should not be left untreated due to the danger that the tendon can become weak and rupture requiring surgery.

3. Ingrown Toenails

What is an ingrown toenail?

An ingrown toenail occurs when a sharp corner at the side of the nail grows into the surrounding skin.

Usually the skin around the site will appear inflamed and red as our body tries to protect itself against the sharp nail. They are often very painful and can easily become infected. 

4. Corns & Verruca

Verrucca: 

A Verruca is caused by the Human Papillomavirus or HPV, in the early stages they may appear as a small, dark stain in the skin and as they mature generally show a “cauliflower-rough” surface. 

You may notice black dots within the lesion and sometimes hard skin or callus can form over their surface. 

Generally the verruca has a defined circumference however can also appear in clusters or pairs. There may be satellite verrucae as ‘daughter’ lesions spring up around the parent – up to 1cm away.

Very often they may appear as a mosaic. Multiple, small, tightly packed, individual warts, which may/ may not be painful. These account for close to 90% of cases. Verrucae are non-malignant and affect 1-2% of the general population.

Corns: 

A corn is a localised thickening of the skin due to large amounts of pressure and friction, usually over a bony part of the foot causing the skin to compact into cone shape and is usually painful under pressure, like walking on a pebble. 

They appear in many forms:

- Hard Corn

- Soft Corn

- Vascular and neurovascular corns

- Seed Corn

5. Bunions

Bunions are one of the most common issues that we treat from week to week in the clinic.

However, they are something that our patients are usually very worried about as they usually don’t want to end up like a friend or relative who they say have “terrible feet”. 

Bunions or the fancy name “Hallux Abducto Valgus” is a deformity of the big toe joint. It occurs when the big toe drifts sideways towards the the lesser toes, sometimes even pushing the second or third toes out the way.

At the same time the forefoot widens making the fitting of shoes difficult. In extreme cases people may need bunions shoes.

If You Are Suffering With Any Of The Above Conditions Call Us Now On 01689 889900

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