General foot care or general podiatry refers to the assessment, treatment, and management of conditions related to foot and lower limbs. This kind of modality includes the management of an array of disorders, injuries, and local manifestations of systemic conditions.
Foot problems and deformities may not only affect how you ambulate and walk, but it may detrimentally affect your knees, hips and other parts of your body too.
Podiatry serves to maintain and re-coordinate a person's mobility through treatments and proper patient education about the health of his/her feet and lower limbs. The patient's quality of life can be drastically improved by managing his or her foot health.
The podiatrist can take care of numerous patient needs and here are some common areas of this modality:
- Diabetic care
- Sports injuries
- Paediatric or geriatric podiatry
- Rheumatology
- Biomechanical and gait analysis
- Podiatric soft tissue surgery
- Foot and wound care
Podiatrists (as health professionals and registered practitioners) can perform nail and soft tissue surgical procedures; they are qualified to administer local anaesthetics.
The speciality of podiatrists include dealing with the conditions resulting from bone and joint ailments such as arthritis and soft-tissue muscular pathologies, as well as neurological and circulatory diseases. Podiatrists are also capable of diagnosing and treating any complication of the aforementioned conditions affecting the foot and lower limb. Skin and nail disorders, corns, calluses and ingrown toenails are included in the list. Foot injuries and infections acquired through sports or other physical activities are also diagnosed and treated by podiatrists.