What Does a Podiatrist Do?

The average person walks about 150,000km during their life, however it’s not until something goes wrong that people actually realise how reliant they are on their legs and feet. Thankfully when problems occur podiatrists can help.

Many people mistakenly think that podiatrist just cut toe nails. Although we do help in nail care, this is only a small part of our job.

Podiatrists are university trained and are the experts in lower limb health. They treat, prevent, diagnose and rehabilitate many conditions and injuries.

Podiatrists are the lower limb specialists who:

• perform biomechanical gait assessments,
• rehabilitate sporting injuries
• test muscles and joints,
• advice on footwear & lower limb exercises,
• prescribe & modify custom orthotics,
• use dry needling & other treatment modalities,
• perform ingrown nail assessments & surgeries,
• treat plantar warts & corns
• perform diabetes assessments, maintain skin and nail health & prevent amputations
• treat many other foot issues from underlying chronic medical conditions such as arthritis & diabetes.

Sore feet are not a normal part of ageing. Just like you would see a dentist for a tooth ache, you should see a podiatrist when you have a lower limb issue.