What we treat - Foot Pain

Foot pain is complex, and a great many health care practitioners can contribute to managing it.

We are most fortunate to be co-located with Monastery Health, which enables us to extend our services to include Nurse Practitioner, Medical Foot Nurse and Kinesiology. From within our team of physiotherapists, massage therapists, acupuncturist, nurses, and kinesiologists we offer a collaborative foot program that can help you address the following issues:

• Plantarfasciitis and achilles tendonitis
• foot pain caused by muscle and joint injuries
• Arthritis in the foot or ankle joints
• Overtraining for sports or recreational activity
• Strengthening in preparation for recreational activities
• Diabetic neuropathies and specialized diabetic foot care
• Bunions, corns, funghi etc
• Poor balance and the risk of falls or other injury
• Wound care, etc
• Structural concerns (fallen arches, flat feet, hammertoes, arthritis, etc)

Walking can be difficult when you have foot pain, which makes fitness a hard goal to pursue. We recommend swimming as an excellent foot & fitness exercise.

Through Monastery Health we can provide access to Nurse Practitioner, Medical Foot services and Kinesiology. The nurse practitioner is a diagnostic and treatment resource person, for those without a family doctor or who would like questions answered, health and/or prescription reviews. A nurse provides the medical foot services, which are primarily for the chronic foot conditions associated with diabetic and aging feet. Common issues include arthritis, bunions, corns, funghi, hammer toes, nail care and wound care. These conditions also respond really well to laser, which can extend post treatment comfort and mobility; and stimulate healing of damaged tissue. Of particular note is the considerable support in research and clinical media for low intensity laser in the management of diabetic foot neuropathy and arthritis.

Our foot program is free-form. You can enter through any care provider, and that provider will look at your feet within their own scope of practice, but also with an eye out for problems that other providers can assist with. We will facilitate accumulation of best information regarding your pain or injury presentation, but will always support the treatment plan with which you feel meets your lifestyle and activity goals.

We don’t offer orthotic services. They have an important role to play in the management of supinated (high arch) and severely pronated (very flat) feet. From a physiotherapy perspective, we believe that exercise is more important for many slight to moderate flat foot presentations. Orthotics can still be helpful, but should not comprise the entire treatment strategy. Orthotics do not strengthen feet, and progressive muscle weakness leads to progressively more serious foot pain conditions.

Shoes are a huge issue for so many of our clients. They are not part of the services we can offer our clients. There are resources for custom orthotics and orthopaedic shoes available from several sources in St John’s. However, that is not convenient for our at-home and Covid leary clients. For these clients, we suggest checking out Aetrex, an on-line shoe store which has built its reputation around orthotic footbeds.