Mid Canterbury Foot Clinic

Nails - Skin

We offer nail cutting services, be it simply cutting your nails just because you can no longer reach your feet or to see what you are doing or just a one off due to an injury that prevents you from doing the job, we are able to help.

Nail cutting also extends to treating thick and deformed nails, bringing them under control to a more manageable and better looking state; we have the tools to do this efficiently and more importantly painlessly.

Callouses/Corns

Most simply, this is an overgrowth of the top layer of skin, this is usually caused by abnormal pressure, eg shoes being too tight or the soles being too hard, also arthritic deformities will lead to these forming.

Once we have painlessly removed these, we will help to ensure there is no repeat of the problem, by advising on a more appropriate fitting shoe or referring the patient for a corrective surgery (eg toe straightening), if this is needed.

Fungal Infections

A rash on your skin or discolored toenails could be a fungal infection. Firstly and most importantly we will work to establish a diagnosis and ensure you are dealing with a fungal infection. Once we have established this, we can implement an appropriate course of treatment which can be as simple as applying an antifungal cream.

Verruca

A verruca is a wart that develops on the foot. Verruca are cause by a virus that is usually picked up in a shared area, eg pool, camping ground, hotel or motel. Most importantly in their treatment is a correct diagnosis, and ensuring that we are dealing with a verruca and not for example a corn. Once this has been established, treatment can be started. This usually involves a chemical (acid) or cryotherapy (cold) treatment.

Shoe Advice

One of the leading causes of people needing to see a Podiatrist is incorrect footwear, be this a shoe that is too tight and leading to pressure lesions (corns and callouses) or a unsupportive sports shoe that is causing a reoccurring sports injury. We will be able to establish the problem with your footwear and more importantly, refer you to the appropriate supplier to have the correct shoe fitted for you. We work with a range of stores in the sports, safety and dress shoe areas.

Sports Injuries

Sore feet, legs, and knees are among the more common problems that happen when we play sport. Our biomechanics or the way our lower limb works is not always perfect. In much the same way that poor eye sight leads to stress headaches because the eye muscles are working harder, poor biomechanics lead to the muscles and tendons in the lower limb becoming sore as they work too hard to correct the limbs poor position. This is something that is more likely to happen when they work harder during sport.

Just as an eye specialist will use glasses to correct poor eye site, Podiatrists will construct and use orthotic insoles in a patients shoes to correct poor biomechanics and prevent muscles and tendons from being over used and becoming sore. A variety of other treatments (e.g. activity modification) are also used in conjunction with this to help fix the problem

Ingrown Toenails

This is a painful condition that affects kids through to the elderly. It can be caused by trauma or in most cases just genetically having a nail that by its shape is prone to ingrowing. Some ingrown nails are fixed simply by just cutting the nail and providing the patient with advice on how to prevent it from happening again. Other patients, particularly if they have been suffering on and off for many years with the nail ingrowing, require a minor surgery to fix the problem. Whilst this sounds rather daunting, most patients when they return for a check up several weeks after surgery will often comment that they “wondered why I waited so long to do it”

Heel Pain

Heel pain is one of the most common problems presenting to Podiatrists. Heel pain can occur during work, sport and leisure activities. There is a variety if reasons that can cause heel pain, but in most cases a condition called plantar fasciitis is responsible. Most characterized by pain after rest (getting out of bed or out of your arm chair in the evening), or pain that often gets progressively worse as the day goes on, it is again caused by poor biomechanics or the way the foot is working. We will use orthotic insoles, massage and strengthening/stretching exercises (amongst other treatments) to fix the problem and more importantly give advice on ensuring it doesn’t reoccur.

Children’s Sore Feet

Most children are seen for “growing pains.” All children will often experience some lower limb growing pains; however some children will experience prolonged and often quite debilitating painful lower limbs. One of the more common conditions is Severs Disease or an irritated growth plate in the heel bone.
The children that often experience these more severe growing pains usually have some underlying poor biomechanics, for example a flat foot. Once this is corrected with appropriate shoes and orthotic insoles, the child becomes pain free and is able to return to normal activities. The use of these orthotic insoles is not normally permanent and maybe only for 1-3 years.