We Answer Your Top Questions About Podiatry and Physical Therapy

There are no known side effects of laser treatment for toenail fungus, including pain. Depending on the laser treatment, you might feel a “heating” sensation in your toes. The energy bursts from the laser can be warm and make the toes feel hot. For the vast majority of people, this is not painful or even terribly uncomfortable. Some people don’t feel anything at all. A small minority may feel slight discomfort, but if you let our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. know, we’ll do what we can to make it as comfortable as possible.

Don’t let fear of pain keep you from seeking the treatment you need. If laser treatment for your toenails is the best option for eliminating your infection, talk to our team about your concerns. We’re happy to answer your questions. You can reach Podiatry Associates, P.C. for an appointment or to request more information by using our website contact form. You can also call our Castle Pines, Cherry Creek, or Parker, CO, locations directly at (303) 805-5156.

Toenail fungus laser treatment works immediately to destroy fungus under the toenail, but it will take a while to see the results. While even a single treatment can eliminate much of an infection, it doesn’t fix the damage to the hard keratin. That has to grow out and be replaced by healthy nail tissue on its own. Toenails grow slowly, so this can take several months. You should see clear, healthy nail appearing after just a couple months. For your digit to be completely and totally clear, though, it may be a year or more, depending on how fast your nails grow.

This doesn’t mean laser treatment didn’t work, or that traditional medication would have worked better. How fast your nails return to normal simply depends on how fast they grow after the infection has been eradicated. Certain vitamins and healthy circulation might stimulate the keratin to regrow more quickly in some people. The first step to clear nails, of course, is getting treated. Let our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. help you with your recovery. Make an appointment at one of our Colorado offices today. You can use the website or call (303) 805-5156 to reach our offices in Parker, Cherry Park in Denver, CO or Castle Pines, CO.

There are plenty of ways to improve your balance. Balance training is an underappreciated part of a normal workout routine, but it plays an important role in your fitness, especially if you’re an athlete. Any exercise that works your core or challenges your ability to stay upright is helpful. This includes using wobble boards, participating in tai chi or yoga, or doing your own exercises at home.

The most basic way to challenge your balance is, of course, standing on one leg. There are other things you can do to make it more challenging, though. You could keep your eyes closed, or stand on a pillow. Walking across a room in a straight line, as if you were on a tightrope, can be beneficial as well.

If you’re struggling with balance and you’d like help improving it, let Castle Pines Physical Therapy or Cherry Creek Physical Therapy know. Balance is a complex issue with many factors affecting it. We’d be happy to help you establish a therapy plan to strengthen your lower limbs---and the rest of you—to perform at your very best. Just contact us through our website for additional information or an appointment at our Denver, CO location. You can reach us by calling (303) 805-5156.

Balance training has a lot of positive effects for athletes. After all, your sense of balance affects many interconnected things. You use it to maintain your posture and alignment, move efficiently, stay upright when you’re active, and adjust to changes around you so you don’t fall. It’s a complex process that involves many different muscle groups to maintain. Since balance is so crucial for your ability to move around and avoid falling, it’s vital for athletes to have it.

Balance training builds the muscles in your lower limbs and your core to improve your ability to stay upright in many different circumstances. Done correctly, it also helps you sense changes in the ground or other factors that might compromise you—which helps you accommodate to changes so you don’t fall. If you’re an athlete of any kind, balance training is more than just a good idea; it’s an important aspect of your performance and athleticism. If you’d like help improving your sense of balance, let us know at Castle Pines Physical Therapy or our associated location at Cherry Creek in Denver, CO. We’ll make a plan that fits your needs. Just call (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment.

Many people wait far too long to see a podiatrist, allowing whatever lower limb problem they’re facing to worsen significantly. So when should you take the time to go see a foot specialist? Well, that depends on your foot pain. If you have any kind of discomfort, weakness, or visible changes that last longer than a couple of days after you’ve tried home remedies, you should probably have a podiatrist examine, diagnose, and treat the problem. In a few cases, the discomfort you feel is a minor injury that will clear up on its own when you take care of it. If the issues lasts more than a few days, however, chances are it’s more serious than it might first appear.

The key is to avoid waiting too long. Many easily treatable conditions deteriorate into difficult-to-manage, chronically painful problems the longer they go without care. In most cases, it’s better to err on the side of caution and address the condition early. Our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. is happy to help you manage any lower limb pain that arises. Just make an appointment at our Castle Pines, Cherry Creek in Denver or Parker, CO, locations by calling (303) 805-5156.

You want an experienced and caring podiatrist to manage your foot health, so there are a few things you should look for in your foot specialist. First and foremost, you need a doctor with a DPM degree: a doctor of podiatric medicine. These foot specialists attended a four-year podiatry school after receiving their bachelors, and then went on to complete a multi-year podiatry residency. You should also make sure your doctor is board certified—the two main certifying boards for the field at the American Board of Podiatric Medicine and the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery. You need a physician with certification from one or both of these.

In general, though, you want to look for a podiatrist who listens to your concerns and wants to work with you to resolve them. He or she should be friendly and understanding of your pain. He or she should also be able to answer your questions and freely discuss all of your treatment options with you. At Podiatry Associates, P.C., this is what we strive for. We’d love to meet you so you can see for yourself. Just contact our Parker, Cherry Creek in Denver, and Castle Pines, CO, offices for an appointment by calling (303) 805-5156.

Ultrasound is a valuable form of diagnostic test that lets specialists like our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. see soft tissue damage in your lower limbs. This is extremely helpful since these types of injuries aren’t really visible on an X-ray image. Ultra-sonic sound waves reflect back pictures of tendon and ligament tears, soft tissue lumps and bumps, and even nerve damage like Morton’s neuroma. It’s common for foreign bodies to appear in these diagnostic images. It may show bursitis and capsulitis in the joints as well. It can even evaluate the severity of plantar fasciitis and help guide direct injections of medication. In some cases it’s used to help plan out surgical procedures.

Ultimately, ultrasound can be used for a lot of things related to soft tissues. If you’re struggling with an injury that isn’t showing up on X-rays, you might have better luck with an ultrasound evaluation. Let our team of experts at Castle Pines Physical Therapy help you today. Request a consultation online, or call in to our Castle Pines office or associated location, Cherry Creek in Denver, CO at (303) 805-5156.

X-rays are actually very valuable tools for diagnosing painful bone problems in your feet, since they create pictures of bones that can be evaluated for problems. X-rays have been used in medicine as diagnostic tests since the late 1890s, when the rays were discovered. They work by beaming small amounts of radiation through your body tissues. These rays are received by film or digital receivers positioned behind you. Since dense tissue, like your bones, absorbs more of the radiation than soft tissue, it casts a “shadow” of sorts that gets captured on the film or digital receiver. This then creates a picture that specialists like our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. can evaluate.

Pictures of bones allows us clearly see fractures, tumor growth, dislocated joints, arthritis damage, benign cysts, and even bone damage from osteoporosis. This way we can identify your condition more accurately and help you get the treatment you need. X-rays also allow us to evaluate your recovery and make sure treatment is working. If you’d like to know more about how we use X-rays or other diagnostic images, or you need help with foot pain, call us at (303) 805-5156 to make an appointment at our Denver, CO location. We’re always happy to help!

There are many different congenital foot problems (conditions that are present at birth). A few of these are obvious right away, including one of the most common congenital disorders – clubfoot. A clubbed foot is abnormally twisted down and inward, deforming the lower limb. Metatarsus adductus, which is a source of intoeing, is also obvious at birth.

Other conditions don’t present problems until later as the feet change and grow, even though the issue itself has been there the whole time. This is particularly common with tarsal coalition and accessory navicular. Tarsal coalition is an issue with excess bone or cartilage bridging and fusing two separate tarsals in the foot. This creates a rigid flatfoot, though symptoms don’t usually appear until adolescence. Accessory navicular is a problem with an extra bone on the inside of the arch. If this doesn’t fuse with the rest of the navicular bone in the arch, it can be prone to irritation and pain.

The good news is that most congenital problems can be treated conservatively. Our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. in Castle Pine, Cherry Creek, and Parker, CO, can help you. Just use our online form to make an appointment, or call (303) 805-5156.

Not all hard bumps on your child’s foot are tumors. Some develop under stress, like a pump bump. Others could be the result of a deformity, like a bunion or bunionette. Sometimes hard bumps are related to serious injuries, like a dislocation or broken bone. Other times, however, they are just extra bone tissue that your child is born with. This is the case for something called accessory navicular syndrome. This is a problem with a small, extra bone on the inside of the arch, where the posterior tibial tendon supports the foot.

Normally this extra bone becomes more of an issue when the feet are done developing and start to mature during adolescence. The bones harden and the bump becomes more prominent. Pressure on the inside of the foot and stress on the arch can aggravate the accessory navicular and cause swelling around it, leading to pain in the small bump. There are ways to alleviate pain from this issue, and from all the other non-cancerous hard bumps in the lower limbs. Just let our team at Podiatry Associates, P.C. in Castle Pines, Cherry Creek in Denver, and Parker, CO, help you. Make an appointment online, or call (303) 805-5156.