Posts for: March, 2010
We treat many forms of pediatric conditions in the foot and ankle. In toeing and out toeing are commonly seen problems in young children. This type of gait or walking cause abnormal stresses on the foot and ankle as well as hip, knee and back.
Many deformities in the foot such as flatfoot and a high arch foot can cause a weakening of musculature and multiple types of braces can help a patient walk better. Sometimes the muscle of the upper leg and torso are weakened by the foot deformity; certain types of physical therapy and muscular strengthening exercises need to be addressed.
Toe walkers don't land on their heels when walking; because of it certain muscles in the back of the foot, leg and ankle area become very tight and certain stretching exercises will help along with certain types of braces.
The shoe a child wears is extremely important to the way they land on their foot and need to be evaluated.
If you notice your child has a clumsy type style of walking, trips a lot, arch pain is noticed or has tendon type pain on the shins called shin splints it might be a great idea for a podiatrist to evaluate the patient.
In our office we take x-rays to evaluate the bone structure and see if there is a structural problem, evaluate the child's walking; the way they stand and look for a limb length discrepancy (one limb sometimes is longer than the other). After all of the above are evaluated a long term treatment plan is provided. Conservative treatment ranges from stretching exercises, shoe changes, braces supporting the arch, braces supporting the arch and ankle or even a brace supporting the foot, ankle and leg. If you are in need of an evaluation please feel free to call our office 978-794-8406.
Ingrown toenails are quite common and occur on the side of your toes and result in swelling and drainage which occurs in the toes. Ingrown toenails occur because of an indentation and slice in the toe which creates a pocket of drainage and many times causes an infection or what is called a paronychia. These painful problems can occur from trauma, shoegear which is tight or from improper nail cutting. Usually with some anesthesia we can remove the infection by removing the ingrown toenail. If infected we usually prescribe an antibiotic and soaking instructions. After the infection is healed we recommend a procedure where we remove the ingrown portion of the nail down to the root. This procedure will usually remove the painful ingrown nail and then the pain and the possibility of reinfection will probably not recur.