What Does A Chiropodist Treat?

A chiropodist is trained to diagnose and treat conditions of the feet, such as, ingrown nails
hard skin (callus), corns, verruca and fungal nails.

Ingrown nails: the treatment of ingrown toenails involves cutting down the side of the toenail and
removing the spike of nail that is growing down the side of the nail causing pain .

Once this spike has been removed the toenail will be much more comfortable and the patient often
experiences instant relief from the pain.

This treatment needs to be repeated on a regular basis to keep the nail from causing inflammation and ultimately infection , requiring antibiotics.

The long term permanent solution to ingrown nails is to have nail surgery , where the edge of
the nail is removed and appling a chemical , phenol, to the nail bed to prevent regrowth.

Hard skin (callus): this is caused by friction or pressure and can be painful or uncomfortable to
walk on. Many people want it removed as it is unsightly to look at.

The treatment is to gently debride the area with a scalpel , and file to give a smooth finish. If the area is tender after debriding , padding can be applied to protect the area .

Foot cream containing urea to soften the skin will be recommended and advice re prevention of callus formation will be given .

Corns: A corn is an inverted cone shaped hard dense area of skin, which is painful when
pushed into the layer of soft skin underneath.

The entire corn will be removed by using a scalpel blade.

If the area is tender padding to offload the area can be applied and advice on preventing corn formation will be given.

Verruca: verruca are a skin lesion caused by the HPV virus.

The virus enters the skin through a break in the surface and establishes itself in the outer layer of the skin. The verruca remains undetected by the body's immune system and can remain in place for many years. There are many treatments for verruca but no one treatment can claim to be 100% effective.

Treatments for verruca include removing the outer layer with acid paste, drying and breaking the cells with
chemicals and applying microwaves to the verruca. All the treatments take many sessions over
time with varied success rates.

Fungal nails: When a fungus enters the nail bed, it can establish and thrive in the warm, damp,
dark area under the nails. The fungus as it grows can damage the nail bed and cause the nail to
discolour, thicken and crumble.

This looks unsightly and can be distressing for the patient.
Treatment includes filing or reducing the nail surface with a nail drill to allow an antifungal , topical treatment to be applied.

As the fungus lies under the nail, treatment is slow and can take weekly, self applied treatments for the period of time it takes for the nail to grow out, generally taking a minimum of 9 to 12 months. Regular 2 monthly filing of the nail is required with the nail drill to make this treatment effective.

An oral antifungal medication can be prescribed for this is the fungus is too advanced or the patient is very distressed by the condition, although care must be taken with this medication as the treatment may need to be continued for many months.

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

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