Foot care part 2.
I sat down for few minutes (six to be exact) with my colleague and podiatrist Dr. Jordan DeHaven to talk about foot arthritis, especially in big toe. We also chatted about foot-gear choices we make.
Full interview available as podcast and audio track here. Below is transcribed version of that talk.
Kat Gilek-Seibert (KGS): I Would like to welcome Jordan, please introduce yourself, he is a podiatrist and I am very happy that you agreed to come to talk to me for a few minutes.
Jordan DeHaven (JDH): I appreciate you inviting me. My name is Jordan DeHaven I am podiatrist in Bristol Rhode Island and then I also am the residency director at Roger Williams Medical Center [author note - in Providence, RI] KGS: This is how we actually connected, we are on committee related to the training, but I want to dive into your field and talk about feet today, specific topic of feet osteoarthritis, which seems to be a little bit of understudied and there seem to be growing recognition of that. What do you think?
“Crock is OK to wear around the house, but not on a daily basis”
JDH: Sure, I definitely agree with you {...}. It’s primarily located in specific joints with the most common joint that we see osteoarthritis in is the great toe joint; so I see that a lot. Most of the patients are coming to my office with a complaint of pain and osteoarthritis is the diagnosis and we really try to focus on the treatment of that - conservative as possible initially when we first meet them.
KGS: I see a lot of it too, definitely big toe complains. [In my office I look at] underlying medical problems when they come to rheumatology and I commonly do some x-ray and send them your way. Now, today's question, because you know the crocs came back, and I understand that some people love them for comfort and easy in and easy out.
JDH: It is not my favorite type of shoe, they do offer some support for plantar fasciitis, [another] example of heel pain. I want to try to support their arch somewhat but not get them into either a custom orthotic or even an over-the-counter orthotics. Crock is OK to wear around the house, but not on a daily basis, because I think you wear them too often. It's just not as supportive, if you fall down or fall out of the shoe. I think if you’re looking at it from an arthritic condition to help support [the foot] I don’t think it’s a viable option.
KGS: I completely agree, run a quick errand to the store but this is actually not [how they are used] {...} so many people just spent all day in them and I feel it me be comfort, but I think at the end of the day they may pay down the line with more back pain and knee pain.
JDH: I think it really comes down to what they’re coming in for, [if is is great toe] arthritis in those cases a flexible shoe or barefoot or flip-flops or crocs are really not going to be helpful to them, they want something stiffer to prevent that big toe from rubbing against itself together as it’s going to decrease their pain and discomfort. When it’s a patient that comes in with plantar fasciitis I’ll say well I always tell them moderation is OK, if you’re wearing it all the time that’s going to be likely detrimental in the future, it’s just like a high heel. I don’t really frown on the high heels all the time, periodically there are certainly OK.
Please note that this interview was consolidated from audio to post, with the edits by the author. For full audio version follow button below.
