Resolve to Get Rid of Your Heel Pain in 2020!

Dealing with heel pain may not be as popular of a New Year’s Resolution as, say, losing weight or saving more money. But if you live with heel pain, you know how much of a negative impact it can have on your life. And without treatment, heel pain can lead to many future problems.

For example, heel pain can certainly lead to increased weight gain and worse health outcomes over time, since it’s much harder to exercise when your heels hurt. There can also be social and personal costs, if your heel pain prevents you from spending time out with family and friends.

So if you make dealing with your heel pain a priority, you aren’t just helping your heels feel better. You’re helping yourself become a healthier, happier individual overall—and better able to be there for others, too.

Heel pain is the most common issue we treat at Trinity Foot Center, so we have a lot of experience helping people overcome their heel pain. We’re confident that we can help you, too!

The first step is arriving at a proper diagnosis. We must know what’s causing your heel pain to create an effective treatment plan for you. Some of the most common (but not the only) contributing causes of heel pain include:

• Wearing the wrong shoes.
• Having a structural problem with your feet.
• Walking with a biomechanically inefficient gait.
• Being overweight.
• Overuse of the heels (due to certain occupations or hobbies, overtraining, etc.)

We’ll also need to ascertain the exact type of injury you have—such as plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, a tendon tear, a pinched nerve, etc. In addition to a physical examination, we may take an X-ray (we have one in-office) to confirm the diagnosis.

Once we have that information, we can start putting together your treatment plan. Common components of many of these plans include:

• Pain relievers. Most people do well with over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications. Some people may require a shot of cortisone to provide extra-strength pain relief for a longer period of time.
• Medical-grade inserts. These provide much more support in the arch and heel than a typical gel insert you’d buy at the pharmacy. They are great for patients who have structural issues with their feet, as well as those who work on hard surfaces like concrete for 10-12 hours per day.
• Custom orthotics. In cases where a prefabricated medical-grade insert doesn’t provide enough support—usually because of a severe structural or biomechanical issue—we can provide you with inserts that are custom made from a mold of your feet.
• Night splints. For patients with plantar fasciitis, wearing splints at night can help keep the plantar fascia elongated so that it doesn’t hurt so much when you get out of bed the next morning.

It’s possible that surgery may be required if conservative treatments aren’t effective enough on their own, but this is very rare. 

Make Smart, Healthy Choices to Keep the Heel Pain Away