If you have diabetes, your feet are more likely to get injured and the wounds may easily get worse. Left untreated, it can result in serious and irreversible conditions because diabetes can continuously cause damage to your feet’s blood vessels and nerves.
Why foot care is important
Nerve damage, infection and poor wound healing may result if diabetic feet are left untreated. In addition, improper foot care (or total absence of care) can cause wounds and sores to the feet. These can quickly get worse and affect your health and overall quality of life.
That’s why proper foot care is important. This starts with self-care and assessment. It’s important to check your feet daily (including the top, sides, soles and heels) and look for:
- Blisters or sores
- Bruises or cuts
- Dry and cracked skin
- Redness or unusual spots and discolouration
- Unusually hard spots
Specialists and professionals can also help you in looking for problems (existing and potential). For example, they can conduct diabetic foot screening and full neurovascular assessment. Then, they will prepare a risk status report so that you’ll have more accurate information on how to better take care of your feet and prevent further complications.
Depending on the risks, you might have to undergo a diabetic foot screening once every 12 months (more frequent assessment if your condition is high risk). This regular assessment can prevent infections from getting worse and allow you to resume your everyday normal life (it will still be easy to walk around and carry out your daily tasks).
What about pedicure and other foot care procedures?
If you’re planning to have a pedicure or have your toenails trimmed and cleaned, it’s recommended that a qualified and experienced podiatrist do the job. With their specialised knowledge and experience (podiatrists specialise in problems and conditions of the feet), they can safely work on your toenails and feet. They always use sterilised equipment when doing pedicures and other procedures such as removing corns and calluses.
Here at Foot Lab Podiatry, you can enquire about proper foot care and diabetic foot screening. As one of the best podiatry clinics in Western Sydney, we use the latest equipment and we conduct detailed assessments so that we can best help our patients.