Your feet support your entire body weight every time you stand up or walk. This places them under a considerable amount of stress on a daily basis.
This constant physical stress can put your feet at risk of injury and disease, but having a podiatrist by your side can help you to prevent foot problems. Let’s talk about how regular podiatrist appointments can help you keep your feet – and thereby the rest of your body – supported, healthy, and strong.
How Podiatrists Help You Maintain Foot Health
A podiatrist has specialized knowledge of the foot and ankle, so they are best-suited to give you health advice regarding your feet and to correct harmful habits that you may be unknowingly doing.
For instance, bunions commonly form as a result of wearing tight or narrow shoes. A bunion can develop when the base of the big toe begins to bulge outward as the big toe is pushed inward, against the other toes. Sometimes the big toe can begin to overlap with the next toe, and that toe pushes against the other adjacent toe. This can cause a lot of stress in the feet.
Your foot doctor will likely recommend that you switch to wearing low-heeled, spacious shoes and offer advice on how to take better care of your feet. The podiatrist may also prescribe pain medication and functional support.
Prescribing Custom Orthotics and Correcting Abnormalities
One of the main types of functional support for your feet is custom orthotics. These may be specialized inserts to be placed in your shoes, or they may be full shoes that provide allover support that’s a perfect fit for your feet.
Orthotics can help to properly distribute your body’s weight on your feet. They are designed to relieve foot pain and improve foot alignment, and they can be used to help treat a wide range of foot and ankle disorders.
Helping You Manage Diabetic Foot
If you have diabetes, a podiatrist is an essential part of your healthcare team since your feet are highly vulnerable to nerve damage. Also known as peripheral neuropathy, this is a condition where the nerve functions weaken in the feet and toes, resulting in a loss of feeling in the feet.
Even the slightest injury to the foot than therefore develop into a severe infection, because you cannot feel any pain. Your podiatrist will regularly check for any stress that is being placed on your feet so that you can remedy the situation before it becomes an issue.
Podiatrists in Northern New Jersey
At Hudson MD Group, our podiatrists specialize in treating a wide range of foot and ankle injuries. We are a collaborative medical group whose purpose is to provide the administrative work for you so you can focus on your patients, and we are welcoming doctors of all specialties to join our physician group.
If you have any questions or would like to talk to a member of our team about the possibility of joining our multispecialty group, contact us today by calling (973) 705-4914 or by filling out our online contact form now. We look forward to hearing from you!
