Skin and Nails
With the amount of time your feet are covered in your socks and shoes, it is not difficult for your feet to experience nail and skin issues from time to time. Trauma, medical conditions, infections, or just simply weight bearing have the potential to cause changes and problems on the skin of the feet, including our toes and heels. These skin and nail problems may be painful, or aesthetically troubling, or even both.
Skin conditions such as corns and calluses are hard thickened areas of skin caused by friction and pressure. This annoying and oftentimes painful condition typically arises from the pressure from weightbearing or footwear, that presses these hard lesions on the underlying soft tissue.
Infections of the skin can include either a viral verruca infection, or fungal tinea infection. Verruca infections may have the same appearance with calluses and corns, but do have several distinguishing factors. Fungal infections of the foot are caused by a common type of fungi called dermatophytes. Common areas of fungal infections include in between the toes, and plantar surface of the foot. These skin infections are contagious and are often spread from communal areas – such as showers or swimming pools.
Nail conditions are also commonly seen by our Podiatrist. Nail conditions such as Nail Fungus (Onychomycosis) or Ingrown Nails (Onychocryptosis) can be troublesome, painful, and in some cases, dangerous due to the possibility of secondary infections.
Skin and Nail conditions seen by our Podiatrist includes: