Taking care of your feet is as important as taking care of the rest of your body. Often, we do not care enough about them until there is a serious ailment. While many of the pain and swelling in your feet will go down with enough rest, there are certain instances where medical treatment is inevitable. Here are some of the instances where you should go to a podiatrist.

Deformities

If you experience any kind of deformities in your feet, this can be a sign of a larger ailment. Symptoms of swelling, pain and redness can sometimes occur due to Charcot arthropathy, which is a problem that occurs when you have diabetes. This can cause the bones to break and slip out of place and if not treated on time can cause deformities on your bones. Diabetes can also cause wounds and sores on your feet to take a longer time than usual to heal and can lead to bone infections. However, if medical treatments are given before the condition worsens, these wounds can be easily cured.

Swellings and Pains

Foot pain with elevated legs when you are lying on the bed and goes away when your feet are dangling off the bed can be a sign of peripheral arteries disease or decreased blood flow. For this you might want to visit both a podiatrist and a vascular surgeon. Pain and swelling on one foot can be due to many causes such as a broken bone, infections or a rapture in tendons. Conditions such as lymphedema can cause swelling in the ankles of both feet at the same time. Visiting a podiatrist if you experience these symptoms will help in identifying if there are any larger ailments that needs to be looked at.

Discolorations

Foot discolouration happens due to a number of reasons. If your feet turn into purple, blue or grey colour can be a sign of Raynaud’s disease, peripheral arterial disease, diabetes or frostbite. If your feet are turning into a pale colour this can be due to decreased blood flow. Redness might be a result of an infection or gout. Your feet can change colour due to bruising after injuries as well. While some of the discolouration can be harmless and will vanish after a few hours of rest, it is recommended that you see an expert in your area; a great podiatrist in Richmond or Carlton or anywhere closest to you.

Lumps and Bumps

Lumps on your feet – especially if they keep getting bigger – needs to be seen by a podiatrist immediately. This can be due to many reasons. Some of the reasons are bone spur; where a bone spur grows out of a joint on top of your foot, bursitis; which are small sacks filled with fluid, ganglion cysts; that are non- cancerous lumps of tissue filled with a fluid. Cysts are harmless but there is also a chance where this can be a tumour. However, tumours in feet are known to happen very rarely. Either way, getting it checked and starting treatments earlier can help preventing the lump from growing further.

Do not wait until the last minute to go for a check-up if something is bothering your feet. If you experience any of the symptoms listed above or any other symptom that is unusual, get your feet checked as soon as possible.