You Can Make A Fresh Start – Without Heel Pain

If you have been living with heel pain for some time, we understand how frustrated you must feel. This is especially true if you have tried one or two remedies in the past that just didn’t have much of an effect on your situation.

But the truth is that it is never too late to take steps to relieve your heel pain and make a fresh start – and there’s no better time to start than now!

HEEL PAIN IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO TREAT

Too many people have simply accepted heel pain as part of their life, and their bodies will be fighting against them every time they step out of bed or try to do many of the things they love. 

But the fact that nothing has worked for your heel pain so far doesn’t mean you’re stuck this way forever. The only thing it means is that you haven’t found the treatment that works for you.

Nearly all cases of heel pain are treatable – and the vast majority of those cases see positive results through conservative forms of treatment. 

The key is to properly identify the source of the heel pain and address it directly. At Total Foot and Ankle, we get rid of heel pain by finding the best answers that meet not only our patients’ conditions, but their unique needs as well.

MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES

Heel pain can have one or more influencing factors at its source. Even when a specific condition such as Achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis is diagnosed, the underlying causes of it can vary from person to person.

Some of these underlying causes can be traced to certain choices we make. This is not to blame anyone for their heel pain in the least! We can’t always be aware of how certain behaviors may be affecting us, especially if they are connected to an abnormality in foot shape or other condition we don’t even know we have at the time.

Once you realize what’s going on, you may only need to make a few simple, easy changes that can lead to greatly improved comfort. A few examples include:

Changes to Your Footwear

Certain types of shoes may not be best suited for certain types of feet. If you do have certain abnormalities in your foot structure (such as flat feet or high arches), switching to more accommodating footwear can provide more of the support and cushioning you need – which can reduce or outright prevent your heel pain.

Choosing better shoes may mean reducing or eliminating your time spent in shoes that are not as good for you. That could include high heels, but it’s also worth looking at other types of shoes you may wear for work and other long periods of time.

Changes to Your Activity

Many causes of heel pain stem from overuse injuries when you push the endurance of your body too hard or too quickly.

Runners who challenge themselves too intensely can suffer stress fractures or Achilles tendonitis, for example. You do not need to be a pro to suffer from overuse; in fact, anyone who is trying to transition from a more sedentary lifestyle to a more active one can greatly increase their injury risk if they don’t ease into activity gradually.

Avoiding heel pain during workouts and other activities is a matter of having a good plan. We can help you develop a good regimen and guidelines that include how to gradually increase your intensity, the best types of footwear for your activities, and how to properly warm up, cool down, and condition vulnerable parts of your lower legs and feet against injury.

GETTING PROFESSIONAL HEEL PAIN TREATMENT

If your heel pain has been persistent (lasting longer than 1 week), you should not put off receiving professional treatment any longer.

We will conduct a full evaluation of your heel pain and medical history to pinpoint the cause (or causes) of your heel pain. We can then recommend ideal treatments and courses of action to provide you with some much-needed relief.

We employ a number of treatments to match the causes of heel pain in play. In some cases, simple rest, medical grade inserts, and medication may be enough to allow your feet the best opportunity to heal. Other times, more advanced treatments may be recommended. Some of these include:

Custom Orthotics

Sometimes feet need more exact cushioning and corrective support/alignment than simple changes to footwear can provide. This is when custom orthotics that are inserted into your shoes can frequently do the job.

Custom orthotics are prescribed to precisely fit the shape, structure, and needs of a patient’s feet, much like eyeglasses are prescribed only for one pair of eyes. When used well, custom orthotics can offload excess stress from vulnerable areas and help properly redistribute forces across the feet and realign bones and relax tendons and ligaments, and fascia while you are moving.

Laser Therapy

For heel pain resulting from soft tissue injuries, such as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, or damage to other tendons and muscles, laser therapy can be an effective tool for relieving discomfort and accelerating healing.

Laser therapy uses organized light to stimulate the body’s natural recovery processes, decrease pain, and speed up healing. Laser therapy has been effective in many acute and chronic cases of heel pain as well as sprains and strains.

HyProCure

For heel pain cases caused by certain types of flat feet or rearfoot misalignment, we may recommend implanting a HyProCure stent within the foot. This is a short, minor surgical procedure that can be performed directly in our office and yields lasting results.

There is always a small possibility that more complex surgical procedures may be recommended for a particular case, but these are rare. We will discuss these possibilities with you only if they are deemed absolutely necessary to consider.

THE FIRST STEP TO GETTING RID OF HEEL PAIN STARTS TODAY

Heel pain is never normal or something you should just be expected to put up with. No matter how old you are or how long your pain has lasted, there are ways we can help.

Total Foot and Ankle will be happy to see you. Schedule an appointment by calling our Enid office at (580) 237-3338.