HEEL PAIN
The common cold of foot problems, plantar heel pain is the thorn in the side (or heel) of millions of people walking the earth each year.
We love heel pain, both for the challenge it offers and the impact successful treatment has on our clients lives. You’re reminded of this injury every step you take and cringe at the thought of putting your bare feet to the ground of a morning.
Have you felt the stabbing, shooting, burning pain under the heel with weight 
bearing and sometimes at rest? Heel pain is easy to underestimate until you experience it’s clench.
With so much information at our fingertips from any “reliable” source with an opinion I think it’s important to break down the facts of what we really know about this tricky condition.
At Hunter podiatry we treat with an evidence based-approach. That means our treatment options and modalities are chosen on the back of multiple clinical trials and studies, not just on what we see in clinic.
The fact is; we’re all different and different cases respond to different treatments.
There are over 40 potential diagnoses for your heel pain, from the weird and obscure including tumours and nerve entrapments to the classic and far too common, plantar faciopathy or plantar fasciitis.
Early, accurate diagnosis is, in my honest opinion is your best chance of positive outcomes. This is why it’s important to involve a medical professional like a podiatrist in your treatment.
Then we can get into the nitty gritty; REHAB.
Some cases merely require some supportive taping, footwear advice and training modification to get the bickies. For others, the condition can be more stubborn and chronic in nature.
A local foot and ankle surgeon told us that he sees roughly 6-7 heel pain patients a day in his surgery and only operates on about 2 each year!
That means there’s no silver bullet when it comes to plantar heel pain. If there was I’d have no dramas shooting you with it.
Because we see heel pain more than any condition in our rooms we have all the weapons in the arsenal. From soft heel inserts to custom foot orthoses to dry needling and Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) with high level clinical evidence. Strengthening exercises are important too to bridge the gap between PAIN and complete RECOVERY.
We design a treatment plan specific to YOU.
We definitely know that foot orthotics are not for everyone and offer many alternatives, yet in some cases they form the missing piece to the puzzle and would be silly to forget. They are great at moving compressive and tensile forces away from that sore heel, especially if your work demands you stand all day.
Anyway, we’ve only scratched the surface of one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions going.
It sucks, but it can be managed. I’ll dive into some of the treatment options and a few things to look out for next.
Got questions? Give us a ring, our podiatrists are happy to chat about all things heel pain!
Darby,
Podiatrist Hunter Podiatry services