Podiatry is one of the medical branches that advanced greatly throughout the years that passed. However, most of the general public and even some parts of the medical community have not followed that development and are not familiar with it. Most of the people that have heard about it still think that it’s about treating calluses, corns and toenails. The truth is much different as podiatry has introduced some pretty sophisticated methods of treating feet and ankles. Here follow a few myths about it followed by real facts.
A podiatrist has to go to school for only two years
The truth is that if you want to be a podiatrist, then you need to graduate from a 4 years undergraduate university, pretty much the same as a doctor of osteopathy or medical doctor. For the first two years, they share almost the same classes with medical students. In the third year, podiatry students start to develop knowledge in ankle and foot medicine and decide in which field they wish to specialize, as opposed to osteopathy and medical doctors who are undecided at that time. Once they graduate, they work as resident physician for two or three years learning advanced and innovative treatments for foot pain relief. After they complete their residence, they can work on their own.
Podiatrists treat only calluses and nails
The truth is that a long time ago, that really was the only thing they did. However, much has changed since then and podiatry has evolved a lot. Today, it can treat all sorts of conditions of the foot and the ankle; conditions such as hammertoes, bunions, various infections, fractures and even some severe deformities.
Podiatrists do not perform surgeries
Podiatry has evolved into a surgical oriented medical branch, since most of the procedures involve some hands-on treatment. Even though some of the procedures cannot be classified in the true sense as surgical (considering that no operating room or general anesthesia is involved), much of what they do is considered as traditional surgery. Most of the podiatrists perform hospital based surgeries.
Bone doctors can do a better job than a podiatrist
Even though an orthopedic surgeon can treat some of the conditions as the podiatrists that involve ankle and foot, they are not even closely specialized in the area as the podiatrists are.
Podiatry is all about expensive shoe inserts that are used to treat everything
Shoe inserts or orthotics are used for various treatments of the foot. However, that is only a fraction of what a podiatrist does.