Diabetic Foot Care
Medical terminology: diabetic foot care
Diabetic foot care is an important service provided by foot specialist (Chiropodists/Podiatrists). As the number of people with diabetes rises, the need to maintain a healthy diabetic foot also increases.
Diabetes has a huge affect on overall foot health. Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to increased chances of foot infections (which could lead to possible blood infection and possibly amputation), loss of sensation in your feet (which increases chance of injury and infection without the person knowing due to lack of feeling) and slower healing ability due to poorer circulation/swelling.
Many people have difficulty managing their own feet due to inability of reaching their feet, the lack of proper instruments to care for their feet or extremely difficult to cut toenails and excessive hard skin build up.
Diabetic foot care is a general service to help maintain people’s toenails, hard skin build and overall foot health. It is usually performed on a routine basis depending how fast that foot issue returns. For example, most patients come back every 6-8 weeks for routine nail trimming while some patients who get hard skin build up only need to come back every 3-6 months.
Your foot specialist will be able to monitor your overall diabetic foot health to ensure there are no new concerns and reduce possible diabetic foot complications.
How can you treat?
- Visit a foot specialist if you are having any questions or difficulties with your feet
- Book routine appointments with your foot specialist to avoid any foot issues developing into bigger foot concerns
Recommendation to prevent the issue:
- Check blood sugar levels on a regular basis including 3-month A1c levels.
- Maintain blood sugar levels at acceptable levels using medication, healthy eating and exercise.
- Maintain nails at a reasonable length.
- Trim your toenails straight across and avoid cutting down the sides.
- Use a foot file/pumice stone regularly to reduce hard skin build up.
- Moisturize feet on a regular basis.
- Wear proper fitting footwear that has sufficient padding and support for your foot type.
