What It Is & Key Symptoms

This is the most common cause of heel pain, resulting from strain or inflammation of the plantar fascia—the thick ligament supporting your arch. You’ll typically feel a sharp, stabbing pain in the bottom of your heel with your first steps in the morning, which may ease into a dull ache as the day progresses.

How We Treat It

You don’t have to live with heel pain. Relief starts with a comprehensive assessment to find why your plantar fascia is under stress. We use video gait analysis to check your foot mechanics and identify the root cause. Your recovery plan will be tailored to you and may include Shockwave Therapy to accelerate healing, strapping, footwear advice, and Custom Orthotics to offload the strained ligament and prevent the pain from returning.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

The Achilles tendon is the large tendon connecting your calf muscle to your heel bone. When it becomes over-stressed, it can lead to pain, inflammation, and stiffness at the back of the ankle. This pain is often worse after activity (like running) or first thing in the morning.

How We Treat It

Treating the Achilles requires a careful plan to settle the pain and strengthen the tendon. After assessing your biomechanics to find the cause, we will create a plan. This often involves Shockwave Therapy to promote tissue repair, a specific strengthening program to rebuild the tendon’s resilience, footwear changes, and potentially Custom Orthotics to correct any mechanical issues that are overloading the tendon.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

Ankle pain can range from a common sprain to chronic instability where your ankle “gives way” easily. Symptoms often include pain, swelling, tenderness, and difficulty bearing weight. It’s crucial to treat ankle injuries properly, as a poorly rehabilitated sprain can lead to long-term problems.

How We Treat It

A thorough assessment is vital to diagnose the specific injury. We’ll check the ligaments, tendons, and joint stability. Your treatment plan will focus on settling the initial pain and inflammation, followed by a guided rehabilitation program to restore your ankle’s strength, mobility, and balance. This may also involve bracing (like an AFO), strapping, and Custom Orthotics to provide support and prevent re-injury.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

A frustrating and common issue for runners and active people, “shin splints” causes a throbbing or aching pain along the inside of your shin bone (tibia). It’s an overuse injury, typically triggered by a sudden increase in training, poor footwear, or biomechanical issues.

How We Treat It

We don’t just tell you to “rest.” We find out why your shins are being overloaded. Our assessment includes a review of your training, footwear, and a video gait analysis to check your running mechanics. Treatment involves a plan to manage your activity, footwear recommendations, and often Custom Orthotics to improve your foot and leg mechanics, taking the stress off your shins for good.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

A stress fracture is a small crack in a bone, most often in the feet or lower legs, caused by repetitive force and overuse—like a rapid increase in running. Symptoms include pinpoint tenderness and pain that worsens with activity and eases with rest. It’s essential to get this diagnosed early.

How We Treat It

The first step is a precise diagnosis, which may require an X-ray or MRI referral. The key to healing is offloading. This usually involves a period of rest and wearing a CAM walker (moon boot) to protect the bone. As you heal, we will guide your gradual return to activity and design Custom Orthotics to redistribute pressure away from the healing site and prevent it from happening again.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

A bunion is a bony bump that forms at the base of your big toe, causing the toe to drift towards the others. This is a progressive structural change that can cause pain, redness, stiffness, and make finding comfortable shoes a challenge.

How We Treat It

While we can’t reverse the bunion, we can be highly effective in slowing its progression and eliminating the pain. Our focus is on improving your foot mechanics. We’ll provide footwear advice to reduce pressure and use Custom Orthotics to improve the way your big toe joint functions, providing significant pain relief and helping you stay active and comfortable.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

A neuroma is a thickening of the nerve tissue, most commonly occurring between the third and fourth toes. It often feels like you’re “walking on a pebble” or have a folded sock in your shoe. Symptoms include sharp pain, burning, or numbness in the ball of your foot that can radiate into your toes.

How We Treat It

Relief comes from offloading the pressure on the nerve. The first step is assessing your footwear – often, a shoe that’s too narrow is a major culprit. Our primary treatment is a Custom Orthotic designed with a special feature (a metatarsal dome) to spread the bones and give the nerve more space, providing effective and lasting relief.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

The plantar plate is a strong ligament under the ball of your foot that helps stabilise your toe joints. An injury or tear to this ligament can cause significant pain, swelling, and a feeling like you’re walking directly on the bone. You may also notice your toes starting to splay or “V” apart.

How We Treat It

An accurate diagnosis is key. We’ll perform a thorough assessment to confirm the injury. The goal is to offload the joint to allow the ligament to heal. This is achieved with strategic strapping and a Custom Orthotic designed to support the arch and take pressure off the injured joint.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

An ingrown toenail occurs when a sharp edge of your nail grows into the surrounding skin, causing pain, redness, swelling, and sometimes infection. They can be incredibly painful and make walking difficult.

How We Treat It

We provide immediate relief. For most cases, we can gently and skilfully remove the offending nail spike, cleaning the area and giving you an instant feeling of relief. If your ingrown nail is a recurring problem, we offer a minor, in-clinic Toenail Surgery that provides a safe, simple, and permanent solution.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

Plantar warts are caused by a common virus (HPV) on the soles of your feet. They can appear as rough, grainy lesions, often with tiny black dots, and can be painful to walk on—like having a small, hard pebble stuck to your foot. They are contagious and can be stubborn.

How We Treat It

We offer several effective treatments to resolve warts. Our podiatrists will assess the wart and choose the best method for you, which may include professional-grade topical solutions or other removal techniques. Our goal is to effectively remove the wart and get you back to walking comfortably. Book an appointment.

What It Is & Key Symptoms

Corns and calluses are your body’s response to pressure or friction, resulting in thick, hardened layers of skin. A callus is a larger, spread-out area, while a corn is a small, deep, and often painful cone of hard skin.

How We Treat It

Our treatment is a two-step process. First, we provide immediate relief by painlessly removing the hard skin. Second, we investigate why it formed in the first place—is it your footwear? Is it your foot mechanics? By addressing the cause with footwear advice or Custom Orthotics to redistribute pressure, we can help prevent them from coming back.