Plantar Fasciitis Treatment Northcote (Heel Pain)
Target your plantar fasciitis foot pain today.
Shockwave Therapy is Now Available
We understand that you want to manage this problem as quickly as possible. We provide the latest diagnostic imaging for plantar fasciitis and the latest treatment options that may assist, including custom orthotics, injection therapy, and shockwave therapy.
Find out more about shockwave therapy from our Northcote podiatrist team.
What is Plantar Fasciitis (Heel Pain)?
Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of a sore heel.
Plantar fasciitis (also known as plantar fasciiosis, heel spurs, or ‘policeman’s heel’) involves pain at the insertion of the plantar fascia on the medial calcaneal tubercle.
When you have this problem, you will typically have a sore heel and pain when first getting out of bed. This tends to reduce slightly with initial walking and then returns again with extended walking. Generally, plantar fasciitis will progress through the following stages:
Pain around the heel bone after exercise. Typically, there is also some morning heel pain that warms up and goes away.
Heel pain during and after exercise. Morning pain increases and does not resolve as quickly as it once did.
Heel pain all the time. Morning is often the worst point, but there is minimal relief.
What Causes Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar fasciitis is commonly caused by repeated stress and strain on the plantar fascia. This is the thick band of tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot, connecting your heel to your toes.
This stress can create small tears and inflammation, leading to heel pain.
Continued walking and other influencing factors cause further stress, which limits the body’s ability to recover. As the condition progresses over weeks to months, the inflammation diminishes, and the collagen starts to unwind and unravel, and then it breaks apart and becomes fragmented.
At the same time that the collagen is unwinding and breaking apart, fibroblasts enlarge in an attempt to make more and more collagen. However, the unravelling outpaces the new collagen formation.
Many new blood vessels are made quickly in an attempt to provide more blood flow to the area, but these vessels are abnormal and immature and therefore are not very good at their job. The collagen that is created and added to the injured site is done so quickly and in a very disordered manner.
The cell enlargement, poor blood flow, old collagen unravelling, and disorganised new collagen all contribute to the thickening of the plantar fascia and pain. Without the right care, this may lead to chronic pain.
Risk Factors for Plantar Fasciitis
Certain factors are thought to increase the risk for the development of plantar fasciitis, including:
Diagnosis of Plantar Fasciitis
Diagnosis is generally made with specific signs and symptoms, including when the pain occurs and its location. Common plantar fasciitis symptoms include stabbing, sharp pain in the heel, tenderness, and swelling.
At the Ankle Foot and Orthotic Centre, we search for additional information about the presence of plantar fasciitis with ultrasound imaging. Typically, someone with plantar fasciitis will have a thicker insertion shown in the picture below.
Normal Width of the Right-sided Plantar Fascia
Thickened Left-sided Plantar Fascia
Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis
At the Ankle Foot and Orthotic Centre, our treatment plans aim to reduce the disorganisation of the connective tissue and offload the painful heel.
We aim to provide advanced heel pain treatment options, including:
Book Your Podiatry Appointment Online
The Ankle Foot and Orthotic Centre's Northcote podiatrists may help you with all lower limb complaints, including plantar fasciitis. Make an appointment to get your foot and ankle pain cared for.
Your local podiatrists for the treatment of plantar fasciitis service the areas of Northcote, Thornbury, Fitzroy, North Fitzroy, Carlton, North Carlton, Clifton Hill, Abbotsford, Collingwood, Ivanhoe, Bellfield, Reservoir, Alphington, Fairfield, Brunswick, Coburg, and Preston.
Call The Ankle and Foot Centre in Northcote for further advice on professional management and treatment options.