Diabetes and Footwear
- Wear footwear that fits, protects, and accommodates the shape of your feet.
- Always wear socks with your footwear.
- Always wear your footwear, both indoors and outdoors.
- Check your footwear, each time before wearing, to ensure that there are no foreign objects in the footwear or penetrating the soles.
- Check your feet, each time your footwear is removed, to ensure that there are no signs of abnormal pressure, trauma, or ulceration.
Management Plan using Footwear Interventions.
Pre-Ulceration Stage (intermediate or high risk of developing an ulcer)
- It is important to wear appropriate footwear to prevent foot ulceration.
- Obtain footwear from an appropriately trained professional to ensure it fits, protects, and accommodates the shape of your feet.
Ulceration Stage (active wound)
- Prescribe Pedorthic medical grade footwear.
- Custom-made orthoses with appropriate offloading to heal ulcers.
Post-Ulceration Stage (healed wound)
- Prescribe Pedorthic medical grade footwear.
- Custom-made orthoses with plantar pressure relieving effect at the high-risk areas.
Review prescribed footwear and orthosis every three to six months to ensure it still fits, protects, and supports the foot.
Diabetes can increase a person’s risk of having foot problems – the extreme case being amputation. This makes foot care and footwear a daily priority.
Obtaining footwear from an appropriately trained professional is recommended – What’s on your feet matters!
At Perfect Fit Pedorthics, we fit shoes with the goal of:
- Reducing inflammation and pain
- Reducing the opportunity for the breakdown of skin leading to ulceration
- Ensuring footwear fits well, protects and accommodates the shape of your feet.
