How Do I Treat Acute vs. Chronic Foot Pain?
Feet can carry a person from one location to another on a daily basis. However, it can be easy to not consider them much until they begin to hurt or show physical signs of ill health, such as sore feet and other more severe conditions. When your feet begin to feel painful to the touch or during regular activities, it’s natural to want quick and effective relief. For the highest levels of quick and effective relief, it’s important to be aware of what type of pain you may be feeling. There are different types of foot pain, each with unique characteristics and treatment options. In this article, we’ll discuss the details of acute foot pain, how to know if you have acute or chronic foot pain, and what specific treatment options are available to you for each of these pain types.
What Is Acute Foot Pain?
Every foot pain, including sore feet and more, has a root cause that contributes to its characteristics and severity. Overuse, injury, or a given condition causing inflammation involving any of the specific ligaments, bones, or tendons in your feet can cause noticeable or acute foot pain. Arthritis is one common cause of this experienced foot pain. Injuries to the body’s nerves in the feet can also result in intense, burning pain, as well as tingling or numbness. This particular pain is referred to as peripheral neuropathy. Some other causes of acute foot pain are Achilles tendonitis, bone spurs, a broken toe or foot, bunions, corns and calluses, flatfeet, hammertoes, ingrown toenails, plantar fasciitis, and a wide range of particular diseases that can affect or present themselves in the feet. Continued overuse, increasing injuries, or a continually escalating medical condition can further increase acute foot pain.
A serious or acute foot pain condition deserves early and knowledgeable attention to achieve meaningful and lasting foot pain relief you can count on. When considering whether you may be experiencing acute foot pain, it’s vital to seek speedy medical attention if you feel or otherwise observe chronic pain, persistent swelling, persistent tingling or numbness, an infection, an open wound, or warmth or tenderness in one or both of your affected feet, accompanied further by the presence of a fever. Severe pain on its own or in addition to one or more of these other conditions can classify as an acute foot pain condition. When one or more of these foot conditions is present in your feet, it’s essential to pursue a medical evaluation and resulting treatment plan such as with the Foot and Ankle Specialists of Illinois.
Do You Have Acute or Chronic Foot Pain?
All foot pain is to a degree subjective to a given observer. However, you can essentially separate foot pain into two major categories; acute and chronic. One noticeable distinction between these two pain categories is the amount of time the pain has been in existence for you. While acute foot pain often exists as a result of a replacement joint, surgery, injury from a sporting incident, or other, the duration of these acute pain issues is often less than three months and can resolve in that time frame given appropriate care and diligent treatments. At this time, the affected tissues are usually healed. However, when it comes to whether you have acute or chronic foot pain, chronic pain has a couple of fairly different attributes. While acute pain relates more to the pain levels and their origins, what defines chronic pain is more specific to the pain’s duration.
You can classify chronic foot pain by the length of time it persists. This type of pain most often persists for three months or longer. Its presence can become recurring and essentially ceases to serve a specific medical purpose as it ceases to function in the protection of the body. Pain that lasts longer than three months is often an early indicator that the pain originates from more than just an injury. With chronic foot pain, the severity doesn’t inherently correlate with the damage if the pain originated from an acute injury. The psychological effect of a person’s chronic pain can include anger, depression, social withdrawal, or fear. Chronic pain can be a highly complex condition, making it sometimes more difficult to treat from the view of a medical practitioner, as it can resist a considerable amount of the treatments that can otherwise alleviate acute pain.
Treating Acute Foot Pain
Once you consider whether you may have acute or chronic foot pain, the next step is to consider how to treat your pain. There can be different steps to treat acute vs. chronic foot pain. When you have acute or severe foot pain beyond mild cases of sore feet and others, it can severely impact your physical abilities, daily pursuits, and overall quality of life. You deserve impactful foot pain relief for your efforts and to continue having a high quality of life. When considering how to begin treating your acute foot pain, there are a few worthwhile steps you can take before consulting a qualified podiatrist in your area. Some of the top steps for treating acute foot pain are applying ice, elevating your foot, reducing daily activities while healing, wearing proper shoes for your feet and given activities, and considering over-the-counter pain medications.
Treating Chronic Foot Pain
While it can be more difficult to treat chronic foot pain, knowing the location of your pain can help you achieve meaningful foot pain relief. Arch, heel, and toe pain can each have different causes and thus treatment options. In addition to the aforementioned treatment options, the most impactful treatment can come from a trained and knowledgeable podiatrist. With a podiatrist, you can have an expert examination, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
Treat Acute or Chronic Foot Pain With Us
It can be difficult to determine what type of pain you have and how to treat acute vs. chronic foot pain. For quality, lasting relief today, treat your pain with the Foot and Ankle Specialists of Illinois.
