If you’ve heard of someone going to the podiatrist, it’s probably because they have a blister that won’t heal, foot pain that just won’t go away or an ingrown toenail. By that point, what could have been an easily resolved foot issue has developed into a serious concern.
But the truth is, your feet are working harder than any other part of your body. They bear the entire weight of you while constantly absorbing the repeated impact and sustained pressure of daily life—from being confined in shoes for long hours at a time as well. It’s a lot of stress for a small area, and over time, it adds up.
An annual podiatry appointment acts as preventative foot maintenance. It’s not overly cautious or a waste of time. It’s like taking your car to have the oil changed before it breaks down—little issues become problematic bigger issues down the line.
But what exactly happens at a routine podiatrist appointment?
Avoid Compounding Issues
During an average appointment, a podiatrist professionally examines your foot, looking for things you wouldn’t otherwise notice. They note how you walk, the shape of your feet, problem areas that have developed due to external stressors, and so forth. An average person would only recognize something that’s extremely painful or obviously out of place.
Subtle changes can indicate bigger problems on the horizon. Maybe a person’s arch is falling or a toe is aligned incorrectly, causing weight-bearing issues later on in life. Since you can’t see your feet behind and next to each other, it’s hard to diagnose what may be normal wear-and-tear and what’s truly concerning.
Take bunions, for example. Bunions don’t develop overnight; they develop over months and years of pressure and friction. By the time they’re observed and painful, there aren’t too many conservative avenues of treatment. However, when detected early, there are many options with which to slow their growth and symptom development—and even prevent them from occurring altogether in some cases.
The same is true for plantar fasciitis. Most people avoid pain when they’ve developed tightness in the morning or soreness after an exercise-induced endorphin rush. They ignore the minor discomfort because it comes and goes. However, through routine foot care appointments, these patients would have been recommended to explore treatment options long before heel pain became so debilitating and obvious that it hurts to put any pressure on your feet.
Different Stages of Life Call for Different Foot Needs
At various points during life, feet need different specialized attention. Children may develop gait abnormalities that create developments with the rest of their bodies. Adults who gain weight, undergo pregnancy or work extensively on their feet need different foot adaptations. Aging also affects circulation and skin integrity.
Athletes add additional pressure on their feet on a regular basis—their feet need regular podiatry not as injury treatment after-the-fact but as preventative measure through biomechanical assessment and customized orthotics and training tips to keep them from breaking down.
As a result, athletes are at risk for stress fractures, plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis—conditions that adults sometimes ignore due to the keep pushing mentality. Proper evaluations can go a long way with prevention by customizing orthotics and teaching patient-specific exercises.
Additionally, conditions such as diabetes require critical ongoing podiatric care—it’s not an option, it’s a necessity. If you have diabetes, you have no feeling in your extremities due to nerve ending depletion and compromised circulation limits blood flow. When small issues arise—it could be a blister that a healthy person wouldn’t even care about—they can turn into necrosis so quickly without preventative foot evaluations.
For diabetes patients, annual podiatry appointments consist of circulation checks, diagnostic assessments of sensation to see if any complication has already occurred (spoiler alert: these conditions never have a happy ending for anyone who’s been diagnosed after the fact). Routine foot care appointments for diabetics have saved numerous lives—and feet—before drastic measures had to be taken.
Pregnancy also alters typical foot health—weight gain, changes in body chemistry (ligaments) and swelling/edema pose problems women have never before had. Some changes are temporary but if precautions aren’t taken, some changes become permanent. The sooner problems are identified and treated during pregnancy, the more manageable they’ll be once the baby is born.
Make the Connection
So maybe an annual appointment seems like that’s expensive for something you feel fine when you’re walking down the street but break that myth in seconds. Sure an upfront fee of an annual appointment from a trusted podiatrist sounds pricey—but compared to what it costs to fix a severely complicated foot problem years down the line?
Bunion corrective surgery runs up thousands of dollars with time off work to recover and countless adverse complications that come with any surgery. Custom orthotics after someone has developed chronic pain without any assessment run more complicated and expensive than custom orthotics before an episode even started.
The same goes for physical therapy from plantar fasciitis—physical therapy that did not occur early on when symptoms were mild but instead took months’ worth of sessions to catch up because someone chose to let themselves suffer instead of taking easy action steps.
Consider the hidden costs as well—time off work because you can’t walk correctly; lost opportunities because your feet hurt too much; frustration from chronic pain which could have been avoided with proactive measures. More often than not, preventive care in any situation falls less than what a gym membership costs—and is substantially worth it.
What Does Preventative Care Look Like?
Generally speaking, no one will need to see a podiatrist monthly unless there’s a continuous condition in which one finds themselves. For generally healthy adults, annual checkups make perfect sense; diabetes patients, those with circulation complications or chronic foot conditions typically need more frequent assessment.
But these appointments aren’t all about looking at what’s wrong—they come with proactive advice regarding shoes (The very pair you think is supporting you might be causing damage!), exercises for strengthening efforts and wearing options to avoid all problems.
Podiatrists can teach you how to maintain your foot comfort (nail trims, callus removals, skin treatments done properly rather than bathroom surgery gone wrong) which also helps avoid complications down the line—usually avoidable problems caused by do-it-yourself attempts.
Establishing Relationships Will Improve Your Foot Health
Furthermore, getting to know your podiatrist (and them getting to know you) helps get ahead of any issues—you might have past relationships with patients who had similar presentations; you will both have established baselines that remain confident—and custom adjustments—over time.
It’s easier to express concerns with someone who knows your story than start from square one each time. Your functional history should be tracked over time in a series of less-than-annoying visits to finally learn it all.
This relationship enhances care by enabling professionals to reassess adjustments through movement patterns others may miss. Special symptoms or changing opinions become customized corrections over time for more personalized care.
Protect Your Feet!
Your feet will carry you for decades to come—treating them like an afterthought until something drastic occurs doesn’t make sense when preventative measures are easy enough to accomplish.
In preventing pain and future complications from routine podiatry care—your quality of life improves exponentially as does your ability to correct common concerns and address chronic ones sooner rather than later. Making your feet a priority will pay off sooner than you’d even consider stretching them!