Pained or aching feet is a hugely common issue facing Canadians of all walks of life. Here, our Stittsville physical therapists explain what treatments we offer both to alleviate your discomfort and treat its source, ensuring the same issues don't come up in the future.
Pained or aching feet are estimated to affect 75% of all Canadians at some point in their lives. An ache in your foot may range from a mildly uncomfortable sensation that fades when you put your feet up at the end of the day to shooting or severe pain that may last for hours, days, weeks, or even longer. Thankfully, regardless of the severity of your pain, a physiotherapist will be able to identify to root cause and treat pain in your feel that make sure to goes away and stays away.
Common Kinds of Pain or Aches in Your Feet
Aches or pains in your feet may express themselves in different ways depending on the root cause of the pain. Here are a few examples of the most common kinds of foot aches and pains, their root cause and when you can book an appointment.
Metatarsalgia
This condition is a painful inflammation to the ball of your foot, often caused by participating in activities with lots of running and jumping or by wearing shoes that are too tight for your foot. This injury can often express itself as sharp stabbing pain when engaging or flexing your foot while walking (especially barefoot) in addition to numbness and tingling in the toes.
While this condition can be managed with at-home treatments like icing or wearing well-fitted shoes with plenty of support, physiotherapy is the best way to alleviate your pain and ensure you don't injure yourself again in the future.
Plantar Fasciitis
This condition involves the inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs along the bottom arch of your foot that is called the plantar fascia. This inflammation is caused by small tears in the tendons and ligaments of this band of tissue. the pain associated with plantar fasciitis involves a sharp pain in your heels in the mornings or during your first steps of the day as well as aching and bruising throughout the day as consistent use of your injured foot makes the condition worse.
As soon as you notice this kind of pain, contact a physical therapist as soon as possible. Plantar fasciitis can become constant if not promptly identified and addressed.
Achilles Tendinitis
This condition is also called tendinopathy and is the result of an injury to and resulting inflammation of your Achilles tendon in your heel. The Achilles tendon is a large tendon connecting your calf to the back of your heel.
Achilles tendinitis generally expresses itself as a pain or stiffness in the area surrounding the tendon, especially during activity and in the mornings.
This injury is most often the result of repetitive strain to the tendon, often by ramping up physical activity like running or hiking without much preparation or training. This condition is often relatively easy to treat early when at-home remedies like icing dispel the pain. However, if you let it develop for too long without seeing a physiotherapist, it can develop into a more serious or chronic source of pain.
Physiotherapy Foot and Ankle Pain Treatments
As with any physical therapy, the kind of injury or pain you are experiencing will be the biggest determinant of the kind of treatment you will receive for your foot ache or pain.
All of this being said, there are many common treatments and tests that our physiotherapists run to address injuries, aches and pains in our patients' feet.
That being said, there are a number of common treatments and tests run by physiotherapists to address injuries, aches and pains in the feet. Passive physiotherapy treatments like hot and cold packs will be administered, as well as physical mobilization/manipulation of the affected tissues and joints. Dry needling is used to release the tight muscles, predominantly the calf. Persistent, long standing difficulty, from tendinitis and plantar fasciitis, may benefit from Radial Shockwave Therapy.
Our Stittsville physiotherapists will also conduct testing like gait analysis (the examination of how you walk or run and how it may be contributing to a recurring injury) to determine the root cause of your injury if it isn't obvious and then provide you with prescribed exercises that are tailored to your specific injury and improving your stride to ensure you don't reinjure yourself again in the future.