Plantar fasciitis is a painful foot problem caused by inflamed tissue. It often affects the heel area of people who spend a lot of time on their feet. But it can also affect long-distance runners or anyone who takes up an ambitious walking or running program. Ill-fitting shoes and being...
If you have psoriasis, a common skin disease characterized by scaley, red, and inflamed rashes, you have about a 1-in-3 chance of developing psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Psoriatic arthritis, like psoriasis, is a chronic inflammatory disease. Psoriatic arthritis affects the joints where your tendons and ligaments connect to bone, causing pain,...
Ideal shoes protect your feet and provide the proper cushioning and support. On the other hand, inadequately fitting shoes have negative effects in the short and long term on foot health. The team at Optima Foot and Ankle, located in Bend, Oregon, is here to help you take the best care of your feet and...
If you run a lot, your toes experience a lot of stress. Unfortunately, this can lead to black toenails. Laura Schweger, DPM, and Evan M. Ross, DPM, of Optima Foot and Ankle, in Bend, Oregon, are experts in treating foot and ankle conditions. And one issue they come across often...
When you have diabetes, you’re at increased risk of developing problems with your feet. As many as one-half of people with diabetes have nerve damage, which is known as peripheral neuropathy. This nerve damage means you have reduced feeling — or no feeling — in your feet, so minor problems,...
Dip your foot in water and make a footprint on the concrete. Does it reflect the outline of your entire foot or does it have an inward curve on one side? If your answer is the former, you have flat feet. This is a condition where your arches that help...
As you get older, your feet are more and more likely to be affected by foot deformities like bunions and hammertoes. These conditions may be painless, or you may experience symptoms of foot pain. If the severity of your bunions keeps increasing over time, it might be time to consider...
You enjoy an active lifestyle, and the idea of a disabling ankle injury is far from appealing. If you’d prefer not to join the 2 million people who incur an acute ankle sprain each year in the United States, there are some good rules of thumb for supporting your ankles. At Optima Foot...
You visit the gym to maintain good health, but did you know it’s a breeding ground for germs? The locker room is a warm, moist area, and conditions are perfect for fungi and bacteria to thrive. Here the skilled team of podiatrists at Optima Foot and Ankle in Bend, Oregon, explain how you can...
Foot swelling is often the result of an underlying condition that requires treatment. For example, poor circulation related to diabetes can contribute to foot and ankle swelling, neuropathy, and diabetic ulcers. Likewise, a sprained ankle and lymphedema are two other sources of foot swelling. But, not all foot swelling warrants a trip to...
Sprains are one of the most common injuries, especially in the foot and ankle. They may occur from playing sports, going too fast up or down a flight of stairs, or even planting your foot wrong getting out of bed. Fortunately, there are treatments to help you rehab the sprain...
Although several underlying conditions can cause heel pain, most times, it can be resolved without surgery. Often, changing a few habits can help. Dr. Laura Schweger and Dr. Evan Ross at Optima Foot and Ankle, located in Bend, Oregon, treat numerous people with heel pain. Often, those patients can overcome...
Let’s face it: feet aren’t the most attractive part of the body. To make them more appealing, it makes sense to dress them up in high heels. While we understand that there are widely accepted beauty norms, we also know that your feet often pay a price for those standards....
Onychomycosis is a contagious fungal infection that affects your toenails. About 10% of Americans have onychomycosis, but that number increases to 20% if you’re over 60 and 50% if you’re over 70. If you have toenail fungus, your nails may look yellow or brown, crumbly or brittle, ragged, thick, distorted,...
You’re preparing for foot surgery, perhaps a bunion or hammertoe operation or surgery for an ankle fracture. Our board-certified podiatrists and podiatric foot and ankle surgeons with Optima Foot and Ankle in Bend, Oregon, offer the most advanced treatments and surgical techniques available today for foot and ankle problems. If...
Your feet provide a foundation for you to stand, walk, balance, and move through life. Their role in your good health is difficult to overstate. Providing them with a bit of extra support is the least you can do for your heroic feet. Custom orthotics might just be the answer...
If you have diabetes, you’re at risk for complications that affect your feet that could lead to amputation. About 50% of women and men with diabetes develop debilitating foot pain while at least 10% develop foot ulcers. Foot amputations from diabetes are on the rise, particularly among younger patients. Take...
Chances are you’ve never contemplated the structure of your feet. But each foot is composed of 26 bones and connective tissue. All that keeps every working part in place. Just as your favorite pair of shoes eventually breaks down, so can the components in your feet, causing them to change...
It goes without saying that a good pair of comfortable walking shoes can make all the difference when you go out and get a little exercise. All too often, however, people find themselves in ill-fitting shoes that cause discomfort, taking the joy out of a morning hike or evening stroll....
When you get up in the morning, and your feet hit the floor, having a stabbing pain in one or both heels can really ruin the mood and set your day up for an unhappy experience. If this happens frequently, and you also notice the same pain when you stand...
A hammertoe, or mallet toe, occurs as a deformity of your second, third, fourth, or fifth toe. The condition is named for how the affected toe bends down toward the ground in the shape of a hammer. A hammertoe can begin as a mild deformity, sometimes present at birth. If...
While being active is an essential part of keeping healthy, there are some instances where it makes sense to stay on the couch. If you’re one of the millions of Americans currently dealing with an injury you sustained playing a sport or pursuing a recreational activity, rest might be just...
When was the last time you looked at your feet? Chances are it’s been awhile. It’s easy to forget what your feet look like after years of stuffing them in shoes. So when you do finally notice that you’ve developed warts, it can be quite disconcerting. Our team of experts...
Summertime is getting close! Whether you’re digging out your running shoes, planning on having fun in the sun at the beach, or planning a warm-weather hike, you rely on your feet for summertime activities. Summer plans and situations can also place a lot of stress on your feet. If you...
When a bunion first forms, it may only be a source of embarrassment when you consider wearing sandals or going barefoot in public. However, in time, it’s likely to cause your big toe to feel painful, swell, or cause the skin covering the protrusion to become irritated. A bunion is...
At first glance, an ingrown toenail seems like a minor problem. The redness, swelling, and pain are temporary and likely to go away on their own, right? Wrong. Your seemingly mild injury can quickly become a throbbing, infected wound. If you’ve noticed an ingrown toenail, you should consider scheduling a...
Laser therapy harnesses the energy in light to restore and revitalize soft tissue in the body. There are countless laser treatments available today, and some of the most well-known include aesthetic services like laser hair removal and laser skin resurfacing. But did you know that laser treatments aren’t just for...
High blood sugar impacts all the organs and tissues in your body, including your feet. Each day, 230 Americans suffering from diabetes undergo an amputation due to uncontrolled diabetes, and many experts predict that these numbers will increase due to a rise in diabetes. Although diabetes care can be overwhelming,...
If you have ever had to deal with plantar fasciitis, you know how awful the stabbing pain in your heel can be when you try to walk. About one percent of Americans are diagnosed with plantar fasciitis each year. As they know, once you have the condition, it can be...
Do you have hardened round circles of raised skin on your feet? You might have corns and calluses that develop to protect your feet from irritation. In other words, they become a defense mechanism for an area of your foot that’s exposed to constant friction. For example, when you walk...
A social misstep can be embarrassing, but the physical type can mean a painful sprain. Whether it’s a twist of the wrist or an ankle sprain, you’re derailed in what you can do, and it’s frustrating. When you injure an ankle, there are steps you can take at home to...
Those who are new to diabetes are sometimes surprised to find that foot care becomes an important priority. It’s part of a learning curve you face after a diabetes diagnosis since the health challenges of the condition are far-reaching. Even minor foot problems can escalate due to the complications of...
For such a seemingly small problem, bunions can cause a large amount of pain. You may not even realize you have one at first, but the pain gets worse over time. Sometimes, you can't put on shoes or even stick your feet under the sheets because the pain is too...
Ingrown toenails are common, affecting as many as 18% of adults in the United States at some point in their life. You may try alleviating the discomfort caused by your ingrown toenail at home. However, if your home remedies fail to alleviate the swelling and tenderness within 2-3 days, then...
Do you worry about the risk of spraining an ankle while you're out for a run, walk, or hike? Read on to learn what you should do to protect and strengthen your ankles so you can decrease your chances of suffering a sprain. Blog: Your ankles contain a delicate combination...
As summer approaches, you may be thinking about all the summer activities you want to take part in. From standing barefoot in the grass, to walking in the sand at the beach, to putting on your favorite pair of sandals, summer is a time to show your feet a little....
IF SO, THIS IS NOT NORMAL! Although pain in the heel is most often diagnosed as plantar fasciitis, it’s not always the case. Other causes of heel pain can be a stress fracture, tendonitis, arthritis, nerve irritation or rarely, a cyst. Here at Optima Foot and Ankle,...
it is curved and grows into the skin, usually at the nail borders (the sides of the nail). This digging in of the nail irritates the skin, often creating pain, redness, swelling and warmth in the toe. Causes of ingrown toenails include: Heredity: in many people, the tendency for...
A fungus is an organism that lives in warm, moist areas. Fungus of the toenails is a common problem that can affect people of all ages, although it most commonly affects individuals who are older. Toenail fungus often begins as an infection in the skin called tinea pedis (also known...
Just a bump on the side of the big toe? Not really! The visible bump actually reflects changes in the bony framework of the front part of the foot. The big toe leans toward the second toe, rather than pointing straight ahead. This throws the bones out of alignment -producing...
