4 Foot Care Essentials for Patients with Diabetes
For people who have diabetes the slowly progressing peripheral nerve damage that often accompanies the disease can make it hard to feel cuts and scrapes on your feet. These openings can lead to infections from microbes and possibly progress to gangrene requiring amputation in severe cases. When you have diabetes, making regular visits to your foot doctor is an excellent way to manage all the foot care complexities you may encounter.
4 essential foot care tasks for patients who have diabetes include the following:
1) Perform daily foot inspections—This is one of the most important tasks since infections can quickly spread when not caught early. Treat any cuts and blisters and be sure to check between the toes and don’t’ neglect the bottoms of the feet either.
2) Trim your toenails properly—Improperly trimmed toenails can lead to ingrown toenails and infections. Have your toenails trimmed at your foot doctor’s office to avoid miscuts, bleeding, and infections.
3) Wear correctly sized and fitted shoes with the proper orthotic inserts—Specially made diabetic footwear and custom-fitted orthotic inserts are excellent for isolating problem areas and providing the proper support and cushioning. Talk to your podiatrist.
4) Keep your feet clean and dry—It’s extremely important to carefully wash and dry your feet daily. Pay attention to the areas between the toes where infections often start.
For comprehensive foot care when you have diabetes, be sure to see your foot doctor. The foot experts at Desert Podiatric Medical Specialists, in the Tucson, Oro Valley, and Green Valley areas of Pima County, Arizona, have unparalleled experience in treating all aspects of foot and ankle care. Our team of doctors: Christopher M. Funk, D.P.M., FACFAS, Bradley A. Whitaker, D.P.M., FACFAS, and Peter C. Merrill, D.P.M., AACFAS, and Zeno Pfau, D.P.M., is dedicated to serving you with state-of-the-art, cutting edge medical technologies including the PinPointe FootLaser, custom-fitted orthotics, and Radial Pulse Therapy (RPT) for chronic foot, heel, or ankle pain. If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment, please call
(520) 575-0800.
