What Is the Diabetic Foot?
The diabetic foot is not one condition. It is the set of foot problems that diabetes makes more likely, because raised blood glucose over time can damage the nerves that carry sensation and narrow the vessels that carry blood. Reduced feeling means an injury is not noticed; reduced blood supply means it heals slowly.
Particular care is given to diabetic patients. Manly Foot Clinic provides thorough diabetes assessments, including vascular (involving toe pressure measurements) and neurological assessment, resulting in providing treatment plans and education for the specialised care of the diabetic foot. Our podiatrists communicate with your GP, Endocrinologist and diabetic educators to collectively care for the condition and your specific needs.
What Puts the Feet at Risk?
Two changes drive most diabetic foot problems, and they often occur together. Everything else follows from them.
- Reduced sensation, so a blister, a stone in the shoe or a cut is not felt.
- Reduced blood supply, so a small wound is slow to heal and more likely to become infected.
- Thickened callus, which acts like a foreign body under the skin and can break down beneath the surface.
- A change in the shape of the foot, which loads areas that were never meant to carry weight.
- Footwear that does not fit, which is a common cause of the first injury.
Symptoms to Look Out For
Some of the changes worth acting on are not painful, which is exactly the difficulty. Check both feet, including between the toes and the soles, and have anything on this list looked at.
- Numbness, tingling or burning in the feet.
- A cut, blister, crack or ulcer that is not healing.
- Redness, swelling, warmth or an odour.
- A change in the colour of the skin or the nails.
- Cold feet, or cramping in the calves when walking.
- A change in the shape of the foot, or a new area of hard skin.
A break in the skin that is not healing, or any redness, swelling, warmth or discharge in the foot, should be seen promptly rather than watched. Call the clinic on (02) 9977 0047, or your GP, on the day you notice it.
How Is the Diabetic Foot Assessed?
A diabetic foot assessment is painless and happens at a normal consultation. Your podiatrist takes a history of your diabetes and its management, then examines both feet: the pulses and blood supply, the sensation in the skin using standard bedside tests, the skin and nails, the shape of the foot, and your footwear.
Manly Foot Clinic provides thorough diabetes assessments, including vascular (involving toe pressure measurements) and neurological assessment, resulting in providing treatment plans and education for the specialised care of the diabetic foot.
Conservative Treatment Options
Routine Treatment includes nail care and the treatment of corns and callus. For a person with diabetes, having these done by a podiatrist rather than at home removes an avoidable source of skin breaks.
Often symptoms associated with biomechanical malalignment are treated with the use of custom foot orthotics. This device can help improve and reduce load on painful structures.
The findings become a written plan and education for the care of your feet: what to check, what to avoid, what footwear to wear and when to come back. Where pressure needs to be taken off a particular area, that is done with padding, footwear changes or orthoses.
When Symptoms Persist
Our podiatrists communicate with your GP, Endocrinologist and diabetic educators to collectively care for the condition and your specific needs.
Diabetic foot care is shared care, and that is deliberate. Where a wound is not healing, where circulation is a concern, or where the shape of the foot is changing, the podiatrist is one part of a team that includes your GP and your specialist, and the plan is communicated between them rather than held in one place.
Diabetic Foot FAQs
Particular care is given to diabetic patients. Manly Foot Clinic provides thorough diabetes assessments, including vascular (involving toe pressure measurements) and neurological assessment, resulting in providing treatment plans and education for the specialised care of the diabetic foot. Our podiatrists communicate with your GP, Endocrinologist and diabetic educators to collectively care for the condition and your specific needs.
That depends on what the assessment finds, and your podiatrist sets the interval for you. Manly Foot Clinic has not published a standard interval, so this page does not state one.
Cutting callus at home with a blade risks cutting into healthy skin, and reduced sensation means the injury may not be felt. Having nail care and callus treated by a podiatrist removes an avoidable source of skin breaks.
A break in the skin that is not healing, or any redness, swelling, warmth or discharge, should be seen promptly rather than watched. Call the clinic on (02) 9977 0047, or your GP, on the day you notice it.
No, you can book directly without a referral. If you’d like, we’ll send a short report to your GP after your appointment so your foot care stays part of your overall health record. If your appointment is through a Medicare care plan, DVA or another funded program, you will need a referral, so check with us when you book.
Serving Manly and the Northern Beaches.
Manly Foot Clinic is at Shop 3/3 Corrie Rd, North Manly, NSW 2100, and provides diabetic foot care for patients from Manly, Dee Why, Brookvale, Freshwater and Balgowlah. The clinic is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.