What is Podiatry?
What is Podiatry? Podiatry is the field of medicine you will be most interested in when your feet begin to fail you. If walking down the street is a painful experience, a Podiatrist is the doctor you will want to consult. A Podiatrist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries, and disorders, in the feet, toes, and ankles.
Quite often the first time a person will need to visit a Podiatrist is when they are experiencing problems with ingrown toenails, hammertoe, corns, or another seemingly simple ailment of the feet. Sometimes this makes it seem like a Podiatrist’s job is just dealing with simple problems, until you begin to have major foot problems, then you start to see the real magic in Podiatry.
A Doctor of Podiatry is required to undergo strenuous training just like any other medical specialist. At first glance you would believe the feet are a simple part of the body to learn about, but once you take a closer look at the number of bones, nerves, ligaments, connecting tissues, and joints involved in the feet and ankles you gain a deeper appreciation for how intensive the training can become. Then consider all of the different ailments which can afflict feet from the simple corns and calluses, to broken bones, fallen arches, arthritis, gout, and hundreds of other conditions, and you will really get a deep understanding of the complexity of their practice.
A Podiatrist must first finish a traditional stint in college, graduate medical school, and then specialize in their field of Podiatry. By the time they are finished they can easily spend ten exhaustive years of higher education, or possibly more. Then they must pass licensing exams to be able to practice in their area.
Most patients do not go seeking a Doctor of Podiatry on their own. The largest portion of their business will come from referrals from Family Practitioners and Orthopedic Doctors. When these doctors discover a problem isolated to the feet, they will call upon the expert on taking care of this intricate part of our body.
We usually take our feet and ankles for granted, but think about what they are doing for us. They are carrying all of the load of our body, keeping us balanced, absorbing the shock of walking, running, and jumping. When you are active, your feet and ankles absorb the pressure of multiple times your body weight due to acceleration. Overweight people and the elderly often discover their feet begin to have problems due to wear and tear from years of usage, or the high amounts of pressure. A Podiatrist examines what is happening to the structure of the foot, how the bones are moving, and how the connecting tissues are wearing. They then make recommendations for changes in foot wear, surgical repairs, or forms of physical therapy.
A quick warning to overweight patients, your Podiatrist is going to lecture you about the importance of losing weight. Your feet were designed to carry the load of a normally weighted person, and the extra weight can damage them quickly.
What is Podiatry? It is the medical science of keeping us on our feet, and moving down the road of life. When our feet are suffering, everything in life seems more difficult. Our feet are one of the most important portions of our body, providing us with our mobility and stability.
