Dansko Lynnie - Podiatrist Recommended Sandal

Podiatrist Recommended

Dansko Lynnie

I know it's late in the summer season to be recommending sandals, but this sandal is so good that I had to post about it. Plus, I live in Arizona, which is the land of the perpetual summer!

This sandal meets 3 of the 4 criteria required to make a shoe podiatrist recommended: 

1. It has a thick, rigid and non-flexible sole, which is the most important aspect of finding shoes that are comfortable and good for your feet. If you are in a shoe that stops motion through painful joints and foot structures, then you will have less inflammation, less swelling and less pain. It also will help slow the progression of bunions, hammertoes, and arthritis.

2. It has a wide toe box, which means less pressure on toes. This will help slow the progress of hammertoes and even may help prevent and clear up toenail fungal infections. 

3. It has rearfoot control, which means there is less biomechanical strain because a rearfoot strap on a sandal helps to limit motion through the rearfoot so that you will not have to 'scrunch down' your toes to stay in a shoe (such as a flip-flop). It also has the added benefit of helping to reduce knee, hip and lower back pain. 

4. Arch support.  This sandal, unfortunately, doesn't have arch support. An option is to purchase OTC arch support that has an adhesive underside and can be placed into the sandal for added comfort. This will not be enough arch support for anyone with severely problematic feet, but it should work for someone with only mild to moderate biomechanical issues.  

Recommended for patients with:

*Hallux Limitus (limited range of motion through the 1st toe joint)

*Hallux Rigidus (no motion through the 1st toe joint) 

*Functional Hallux Limitus 

*Mild Bunions

*Mild Tailor Bunions

*Hammertoes

*Ingrown Toenails

*Plantar Fasciitis (heel pain)

*Osteoarthritis

*Metatarsalgia

*Morton's Neuroma

*Capsulitis

*Plantar Plate Issues

*Sesmoid Issues

*Lisfranc Joint Issues

*Peroneal Tendonitis

*Mild Achilles Tendonitis

Not recommended for patients with: 

*Severe Over-Pronation (not enough arch support) 

*Ankle Instability

*Charcot Foot

*History of Ulcerations

*Drop Foot

*Diabetics

*Peripheral Neuropathy (nerve damage)

*Peripheral Arterial Disease (poor circulation) 

*Posterior Tibial Tendonitis (not enough arch support) 

*Severe Hypermobility/Ligament Laxity

*Excessive Swelling

*Lymphedema

For more information, please refer to my other articles on this blog:

Shoe recommendations for patients recovering from Lisfranc Injuries,

http://podiatryshoereview.blogspot.com/2012/04/podiatrist-shoe-recommendations-for.html

Top 10 reasons why your feet hurt - and how to alleviate the pain. 
http://podiatryshoereview.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-ten-reasons-why-your-feet-hurt-and.html

Thank you for reading and I hope this was helpful!

Dr. Cathleen A. McCarthy

:)

Podiatrist Recommended: Your Three Day Plan to Less Foot Pain.

Your Three Day Plan

To Alleviating Foot Pain

Step One:

Immediately, stop walking barefoot, stop wearing flip flops, stop walking around the house wearing only socks and stop wearing flimsy bedroom slippers. 

Step Two:

Purchase RX CROCS and wear them as bedroom slippers around the house. It is important that you wear the strap to the back. The RX Crocs are approved by the American Podaitric Medical Association for Diabetics and works wonders if you are suffering from heel pain or any forefoot pain. They also help alleviate knee, hip and lower back pain. 

Step Three: 

Find a New Balance store and purchase either the New Balance 928 or the 1540. If you are extremely sedentary and have trouble reaching your feet to tie your shoes, purchase the NB 812 with velcro straps. While you are at the store, purchase diabetic socks - even if you are not diabetic. They are amazing. 

Step Four:

REST. For the next three days, whenever you are sitting, elevate and rest your feet. Ice your feet with a bag of frozen vegtables for 5 to 10 minutes once or twice a day - unless you are diabetic, have poor circulation, have nerve damage or have a history of gout. 

If you are doing all this and you do not get significant pain relief within three days, you need to make an appointment with your local Podiatrist for further evaluation. 

If you have been walking around with a "dull ache" in your feet that is like a nagging tooth ache or you have unexplained swelling - you could potentially be walking around on a broken bone or stress fracture. Most Podiatrists can take X-rays in their offices and offer complete treatment for foot problems such as fractures, sprains, bunions, hammertoes, corns & calluses. If your Podiatrist immediately jumps to suggesting surgery for your bunions or hammertoes, please get a second opinion from a more conservative biomechanical-focused Podiatrist. You should only consider foot surgery after you have tried and failed conservative, non-surgical treatment.

After your Podiatrist properly diagnoses and treats your foot issues, ask him or her about getting Custom-Molded Orthotics, which are often covered by your insurance. CMO's are prescription arch supports that are custom-molded to your feet and hold your foot in the biomechanically correct and neutral position which helps to alleviate foot, knee, hip and lower back pain. CMO's also help slow or stop the progression of bunions, hammertoes and joint changes such as osteoarthritis and Hallux Rigidus. Your Podiatrist can also add "sweet spots" that off-load painful calluses on the bottom of your feet. 

Just remember, if you are limping or compensating for more than three days - it is very tough on your knees, hips and lower back and you are throwing off your biomechanics. The quicker you deal with foot and ankle pain, the better. Most problems with the foot and ankle are very treatable using gentle non-surgical treatment. When you see people limping around with terrible biomechanics - that usually did not happen overnight. The reality is that as soon as we start compensating or limping for any reason - and we ignore it and keep walking  - our bodies get used to it and that becomes our new normal. After decaades of this, we end up in a situation where our bodies start breaking down and it interferes with our ability to have an active and healthly lifestyle.

Don't wait. If you are limping, after three solid days of doing the things discussed here - please make an appointment to see your Podiatrist. 

As I always tell my patients - my job as your Podaitrist is to keep you as active as possible for as long as possible with as little problems as possible - so that you see less of me because you are out there having fun!

For more information - please go to the upper right hand corner of this blog and find the search butteon where you can search: 

"My feet hurt - top ten things to do to alleviate foot pain" 

and

"Shoe Recommendations for patients recovering from a Lisfranc's fracture." 

Have a lovely day,

Dr. Cathleen A. McCarthy 

:)

Chronic Pain and Your Feet: Article to soon appear in "Arizona Pain Monthly."

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a Podiatrist is being able to help patients who suffer with chronic pain. I always advise chronic pain patients that our goal is to decrease their pain by twenty to eighty percent and that we may never be able to get them permanently pain-free but our goal is to get them to “minimal to mild occasional pain with some flair-ups that, when they occur, they will know exactly what to do.”

Although we offer a wide range of non-surgical treatment options for patients with chronic pain, the first and most basic concept is the easiest but often the hardest to get people to implement. No walking barefoot!

Every time you walk barefoot, you are forcing more wear-and-tear across your joints and you are forcing you muscles, tendons, ligaments as well as your knees, hips and lower back to work harder to stabilize your whole body. What I do recommend for wearing around the house is prescription-strength Croc Clogs with the strap to the back. Crocs are approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association and I advise my patients that if they do nothing else besides stop walking barefoot and wear Rx Croc Clogs around the house, they will have a thirty percent improvement in any knee, hip and lower back pain within three weeks.

Proper shoe-gear is imperative.

There is a simple concept that is completely counter-intuitive to what most people believe to be true about what constitutes a “comfortable” shoe. When is the last time you heard someone go into a shoe store and say, “My foot is killing me – please give me the most rigid sole shoe you have.” Never, right?

What most people say is, “My foot is killing me, what’s your most soft, flexible and cushiony shoe?”

Well, think about it – if you go to the doctor with a broken wrist – they put you in a rigid cast and you instantly get relief because “less motion means less pain.”

When it comes to shoes, what actually feels good is a rigid sole with firm arch support as well as proper forefoot and rearfoot control. Less motion means less pain, less wear-and-tear on the joints and tendons and more biomechanical control of not only the foot but also the knees, hips and lower back.

Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule. For instance, if a patient is ninety years old and doesn’t do a lot of walking, I would place that patient in a supportive but light shoe. Biomechanical control is far more important in active patients.

Have you seen the MBT’s or the new Sketcher Shape-ups? The reason owing to their success (because it’s definitely not their good looks!) is the fact that they have a “rocker-bottom” sole, which provides no motion across the bottom of the foot. The shoe companies when designing this shoe “borrowed” the concept of the rocker-bottom soled shoe from the “below-the-knee-walking boot” that Podiatrist’s use to treat fractures.

On the second visit of any chronic pain patient, I ask them to bring in a bag of their shoes so that we can discuss what is working and what is not working. I find that the first half of my job with any patient is to heal the foot and the second half of the process is, after the foot is healed, that we get the patient into proper shoes, inserts and eliminate any bad habits such as wearing flip-flops or walking barefoot. If I neglect this second part, I am sure to see the patient again and, in the words of Humphrey Bogart, “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but someday and someday soon.”