Diabetic Foot Care

How Do You Treat People With Diabetes?

When you have diabetes, even common, seemingly minor foot problems can lead to serious complications. Therefore, specialized foot care and proactive constant monitoring from a foot specialist is essential, ideally before issues arise.

Feet First Clinic offers routine diabetic foot assessments to help you keep your feet healthy and prevent diabetes-related foot complications.  Our diabetic foot care services include the following:

1. Chiropodist examination:  The chiropodist will carefully examine your feet and check for: adequate circulation, any signs of neuropathy, any cuts or scrapes, and potential risks for foot ulcers
2. Nail, skin and callus care:  The chiropodist will manage any nail and skin concerns, or do a medical pedicure to ensure your skin and nails stay healthy and free of infection.
3. Diabetic foot education:  Our foot specialists will provide you with information about how to manage and prevent the effects of diabetes on your feet.  
4. Advice on proper footwear and custom foot insoles:  This will reduce your risk of developing corns, calluses and other foot issues that may cause complications in diabetes patients.  
5. Wound care, including wound debridement and application of proper dressings to facilitate healing and manage or prevent infection
6. Measuring for and dispensing medical grade compression stockings to improve circulation to the feet and lower leg. 
7. Orthopedic footwear or orthotics:  These can accommodate any deformities resulting from diabetes, and help correct the effects of diabetic neuropathy on the muscles in your feet when you move.

Click here for further information on how diabetes affects the feet, and why proactive, preventative, regular ongoing assessments by a foot specialist are important.

What Foot Conditions Does Diabetic Foot Care Treat?

Our diabetic foot care services are designed to monitor and prevent the effects of diabetes-related peripheral vascular disease (poor circulation to the feet and lower limbs) and diabetic neuropathy (numbness in the feet and lower limbs). 

Feet First Clinic’s diabetic foot care service is a comprehensive package that proactively targets and treats any other foot issues and deformities that may arise, since these conditions can lead to serious complications for diabetic patients.  Such conditions include:

• Corns
• Calluses
• Blisters
• Cracked Heels
• Cracked Toenails
• Ingrown Toenails
• Toenail and foot fungus
• Plantar Warts
• Bunions
• Hammertoes

By being proactive and getting routine diabetic foot care assessments, our chiropodists can ensure any foot issues are treated in its early stages, or prevented before they even arise.

How Do I Get Diabetic Foot Care Treatment At Feet First Clinic?

1. Contact our office to book a diabetic foot care assessment with one of our skilled chiropodists. 
2. At your initial assessment, the chiropodist will conduct a thorough examination, determine a treatment plan and make any appropriate foot care recommendations.
3. Routine follow-up appointments for diabetic foot care will be scheduled based on the chiropodist’s recommendations.

For more information about what you can expect at your diabetic foot care treatments at Feet First Clinic, check out this article from our blog.

Diabetes impacts the immune, circulatory and nervous system.  Poor blood circulation and a compromised immune system means the body cannot properly heal from seemingly harmless foot issues, like a cut or scrape.  This makes diabetic patients especially vulnerable to developing complications, such as infections from something as minor as a callus.  To compound this, diabetes affects eyesight and causes loss of sensation and numbness in the lower limbs and feet; therefore, you may not even feel or notice any developing issues.  

If foot concerns in diabetes patients are not quickly and proactively addressed, it can easily lead to ulcers, gangrene and even amputation.

Therefore, in order to manage and prevent complications in your feet, it’s essential to be proactive and seek treatment from a foot specialist on a regular basis, ideally before issues arise.  Preventative foot care and maintenance is the best course of treatment for diabetes patients.

In most cases, OHIP does not cover diabetic foot care.

Fortunately, most chiropodist services are covered by private extended health benefits.  If you’re unsure about your benefits and coverage, check with your employer’s HR department or your insurance policy provider.  The Feet First Clinic can also get a policy breakdown on your behalf.