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Understand the difference between a chiropodist and a podiatrist

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Understand the difference between a chiropodist and a podiatrist

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Chiropodists and podiatrists, deal with the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the lower limb and are qualified to treat people with arthritis, diabetes, nail surgery and sports injuries. In the UK there is no difference between the terms chiropodist and podiatrist.  In many other English-speaking countries, however, only the term ‘podiatrist’ is employed and this refers to the fully-trained professional

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everyone has different feet and it is important that you have the right shoe, for me I would need tapered ones as my second toe is longer and the rest slope down.

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online you can buy foot enhanchers that you put under ballet tights to give you the impression that the dancer has a higher instep, its all about perception so it dosent train your foot it just looks aestetically pleasing. its amazing what people have came up with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsHjYiy6Y74

Arch enhancer includes a contoured pad designed for the dorsal surface of the foot, double faced tape and stability sock. Once secured to the top of the foot with tape and stability sock, the pad is invisible under tights with pointe shoes! Stability sock features toe, heel and sole openings and is machine washable.

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How ballet dancers prepare pointe shoes for performance

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many people have wondered if the foot stretcher works however I don't know anyone with one as they are so expensive. I have read things that say they are amazing and improve feet really fast however I have also seen things that say they are really dangeroius and don't work. the links below takes you to reviews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGF4mYaIOS4
they say you can only transform your feet so much until they wont change any more.the man in the article warns that if you have a history of foot and ankle injuries, use a foot stretcher only in the presence of a health professional to ensure that you’re not causing additional damage.
http://pointemagazine.com/inside-pt/issuesaprilmay-2013ask-amy-are-foot-stretchers-safe/
I decided I wanted to try it for myself so I found something on youtube about making your own, I made my own and tried it for a while and it does give you a good stretch however I can see how they are dangerous especially for people with unflexible feet as some excersises hurt me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bJ7fR9gAiM

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Ballet Foot Stretch - Foot Stretcher for ballet dancers

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A new and effective foot stretcher for dancers. A personal portable tool to improve the feet of dancers and gymnasts. The Original and the only US Patent.

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Ballet Foot Stretch - Foot Stretcher for ballet dancers

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A new and effective foot stretcher for dancers. A personal portable tool to improve the feet of dancers and gymnasts. The Original and the only US Patent.

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How to get perfect ballet feet, is it possible?

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How to get perfect ballet feet, is it possible?

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I have a slightly flat foot and not a high instep however I would like to know how to improve my feet and make them almost perfect. The instep is the bony structure on top of your foot. The ideal ballet foot has a high arch and a high instep. Having a high arch is beneficial for a dancer because it makes it possible to get to a high demi- pointe in soft ballet shoes.
How?
in the link below I have attatched a article with videos of foot excersises, it says this exercise will not only strengthen the arches of your feet, but also the muscles in the ankles and the calves. it recommends starting with 10 repetitions of each part, there are 4 parts to this exercise.
Also there is the Towel Scrunch exercise and the Thera-band. I will do these excersises daily to see if they actrally work.
http://balletskills.com/2014/06/18/how-to-get-beautiful-ballet-feet-and-arches/
this video helped me too!

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I read this article and found it very helpful as I get foot pain a lot. it says I need to keep my toe nails short and square not rounded as curved nails are longer and result to ingrown toenails. it says not to wear nail polish as you cant see any bruising. calluses should be kept trimmed, They help protect against blisters and abrasions, so avoid the urge to file them off

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by Lauren Warnecke

The human body contains 208 bones, and 52 of them are in your feet.

Your foot is arguably one of the most complex structures in the body, especially when you consider the purpose it serves for us dancers: support, balance, and propulsion.

Much like the musician and his instrument, for us dancers it is crucial that we keep our feet in good working order.

Foot maintenance:

Dancers are notorious for their... um... not-so-attractive feet. "Pedicure" is not in our vocabularies! Here are some considerations for ways to prevent and treat minor injuries, and general care for your feet:

1. Cut your toenails short, and straight across. The nail should be straight across and not curved because curved nails or nails that are too long can lead to ingrown toenails. The length of the nail should be *just* where the white part begins, with a very small amount of white showing. Use clippers as opposed to scissors to get a clean, straight cut.

2. Don't wear toenail polish. Polish prevents you from being able to see under the nail, so you can't see if you're developing a problem such as a bruised or ingrown nail. That doesn't mean you can NEVER wear polish... go ahead and wear it for special events and then take it off before your next class, or, wear a clear polish that allows you to see the nail.

3. Learn to love calluses. Dancers should keep their calluses trimmed if they are overly thick and causing pain (forexample, if it feels bumpy in your shoe or against the floor), but generally calluses are a really good thing. They help protect against blisters and abrasions, so avoid the urge to file them off!

4. If you develop a blister: Blisters are par for the course in pointe work, especially as you break in new shoes. They can also result from rubbing in soft shoes or jazz shoes, or from harder tap or character shoes. Blisters can occur anywhere on your foot, but generally tend to pop up on the surface of the toes, inside or outside border of the metatarsals, or on the heel. Blisters can be painful - even the littlest ones! Below is some advice on how to treat the two main types of blisters:

If you develop a clear colored blister, and the skin hasn't broken, use a sterilized needle to pop the blister and drain out the liquid. Do not remove the loose skin; cover with a bandaid and strip of athletic tape. If the skin has begun to tear, use a small pair of scissors to remove any loose skin and cover with a bandaid and strip of athletic tape.

If you develop a red colored blister, do not pop it. Blood blisters should be left to heal on their own; cover with a bandaid and strip of athletic tape.

For painful blisters you can also cut the center out of a small piece of moleskin to form a donut shape. This prevents the surface of your shoe from rubbing on the blister until it heals. Cut a square or circle that's bigger than your blister. Fold in half and make a slit. Putting the scissors through the slit, cut an inner circle the size of the blister. Remove the paper covering and stick the moleskin pad to surround the blister.

Finally, check the fit of your shoe. Blisters are normal with new shoes, but if you are developing them on a regular basis you may want to see about a different style that better molds to your foot.

Take Inventory on Your Dance Bag:

Making sure you have everything you need is critical to foot maintenance, especially if you're a pointe shoe dancer. Here's a list of supplies I recommend keeping in your dance bag:

Nail clippers

Band aids

Athletic tape

Mole skin

Extra lamb's wool or toe pads

Needle and thread

Extra elastic

Small pair of scissors

Tennis ball or foot roller

While these are the essentials, the list of what can appear in a dancer's bag goes on and on.

Pointe Magazine does a feature called "Show and Tell", featuring various professional dancers and diving inside their bags (sometimes including really obscure things like Kit-Kat bars, good luck charms, and Vaseline).

Over time, as you get to know your feet better, you'll discover what you really need (and what you should include for rainy day emergencies).

Share with me:

Do you have a story and/or picture of a foot injury that you can share? In part three of this series I would like to share a few readers' stories about your experiences with foot and ankle injuries. Other questions to consider:

What do you do to keep your feet in top condition?

What's the silliest/strangest thing in your dance bag?

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on the social media sites to share your experiences, or leave in the comments below. A few reader stories will be featured in the column this March, right here on Dance Advantage!

More Meet Your Feet!
Part 2: Building stronger feet Part 3: Acute injuries (sprains and strains)

Filed Under: Tagged With: Blog, blister color, blisters, bruised nail, calluses, cutting toenails, dance bag, emergency kit, foot care, foot maintenance, general foot care tips, healthy feet, ingrown toenail, minor injuries, mole skin, preventing injury, show and tell, toenails, what's in your dance bag Featured, Health, Wellness & The Dancer's Body

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Essential Foot Care and Maintenance For Dancers

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by Lauren Warnecke The human body contains 208 bones, and 52 of them are in your feet. Your foot is arguably one of the most complex structures in the body, especially when you consider the purpose it serves for us dancers: support, balance, and propulsion.

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What is it?
When pointe shoes repeatedly rub against the skin this friction creates a fluid-filled pocket. If the fluid is blood it is referred to as a blood blister, which is worse than a clear-fluid blister. If a blister pops open it could become infected and further complicate matters.
How to prevent them
If a dancer knows where blisters are most likely to develop she can take action by covering those blister-prone patches of skin. It is important to keep whatever is being used as coverage wrinkle-free, otherwise blisters will be encouraged, rather than discouraged, to form
How to soothe the pain
Toe tape, moleskin, and bandages are all effective in preventing blisters. They should also be used to protect blisters from getting worse, which enables the dancer to safely continue working through a blister.

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What is it?
Both types of corns result from poorly fit shoes that are too tight. The hard corn's name is an adequate description of what it looks and feels like, and it's common to find one on the little toe. A soft corn also looks and feels the way its name sounds, but it lives between the toes where it feeds off of moisture. These softer corns are greyish-white.
Prevention -Pointe shoes that are too short or that rub against the feet should never be worn. These uncomfortable shoes increase the risk of developing hard corns. Soft corns can be prevented by making sure the spaces between the toes are dry, and that the metatarsals have enough room in the box.
Treatment - Although corns can be surgically removed, this is not something that is recommended for dancers. It's important to be aware that chemical corn pads may cause infection, therefore they are probably not an ideal option for treating corns.  Cutting a hard corn should never be done at home. Instead, a podiatrist should be sought out to perform this job. The two toes that hold a soft corn between them need to be separated to let the corn have a chance to heal. This can be done by placing something between the problem toes. Either a special product designed for this purpose, or something simple like cotton will do.
Products - Spacers by Bunheads can be used as separators between the toes to prevent and treat soft corns. An antiseptic powder can be applied in order to keep the toes dry. During a hard corn's healing process it should be covered by lambs wool, tape, or a bandage.

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What is it?
A bunion occurs when the metatarsal head of the great toe angles toward the middle of the body, causing the big toe to press against the other toes and put pressure on the joint. These enlargements are not uncommon, about 23 per cent of the general population have them
How to prevent them
Constrictive shoes can encourage  growth. Female dancers tend to develop bunions much more readily than males because they wear pointe shoes and high heels. so when you get pointe shoes make sure your toes are protected with something like pointe shoe pads which is a thin jelly pad on the end of your toes. it is also important to make sure you get pointe shoes fitted properly.
How to soothe the pain
• Take off your shoes whenever you can to relieve pressure.
• Use yoga toes and spacers to help realign the bones. Toe spacers can be worn in street shoes, and Ruth Solomon of IADMS says, “Wearing bunion splints at night will pull your toe out and improve pain.”
• Stretch out your toe by gently pulling it away from the joint with your hand, then slowly moving it medially.
• Warm-soak your feet in an Epsom salt bath to reduce inflammation.

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this article explains many dancers problems, for example ballet looks very pretty and elegant however underneath the pink tights and satin pointe shoes are severe cases of corns, bunions and blisters due to the amount of pressure on the toes from being up on them all day and the cause of friction from dancing everyday for 8/9 hours. most people are embarrassed to see a chiropodist because they think there feet are so ugly however the problem is the chiropodist cannot remove all the derad skin and then the dancer wont have a hard base on the foot to dance on which will result back to blisters.
how it effects me: I am not a prima ballerina so I do not have bunions as I do not wear pointe shoes as my feet are not strong enough however from ballet, contemporary and jazz I do get blisters on my toes and cuts from the floor which is painful however as a dancer I will alwayse face these problems. the importanht thing I need to do is just use plasters if I have cuts and look after my feet with regular washing a cream to bring moisture back.

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It should have been the best day of Jennie Harrington's life. Joining English National Ballet and dancing in the chorus of Cinderella was the fulfilment of a lifetime ambition - but the pain gave her the shock of her life. "I came off stage, walked into the dressing room, and burst into tears. The other girls said, 'Oh my God, what's wrong?' When I told them, they said, 'Is that all?'"

Years of ballet school hadn't prepared Harrington, now 23, for the agony of the professional circuit. Begoña Cao, a soloist with the ENB and three years her senior, remembers telling Harrington she would get used to it. She had some other advice, too: "Keep smiling - it lifts you up. Otherwise you cry."

Go to any ballet house and, however serene the dancers' faces, those elegant pink silk shoes hide a battery of injuries: black nails, purpling flesh, growths galore. Peter Norman, one of the UK's leading podiatrists, has seen it all in the 16 years he has been treating the the Royal Ballet. He is aware, too, that even more goes on unseen. "I know of dancers who have gone on pointe with broken bones and stress fractures," says Norman. "The pressure on them to get parts, to guard their places in the companies, means they push themselves too far."

Most dance companies now employ physiotherapists, even masseurs, on staff, but dancers' feet remain areas of private hell. "I've never seen a podiatrist," admits Cao, who is 26. "I'm too scared. And too embarrassed - I know I've got the worst feet." While the US has a large network of foot specialists for dancers, in the UK Norman is the only one of his kind.

When Harrington began her career, she found a chiropodist in the Yellow Pages who had no previous experience with dancers, and now sees her once a year. "She tells me she has 80-year-old patients who have better feet," Harrington says. They have found ways to manage her pain; Harrington begs the chiropodist not to remove the thick layers of dead skin, since they're the only thing preventing her from getting too many blisters. For most dancers, blisters, bunions and corns are the norm, the inevitable result of feet compressed into unforgiving pointe shoes (with blocks built up using layer upon layer of hessian triangles, paper and glue) that give the illusion of dancing on tiptoe.

With constant wear, the kind of minor ailments that most people would find merely irritating become self-perpetuating agonies. Corns develop sinuses and become ulcers; nails thicken and grow hard skin underneath; and dancers, compensating for one kind of pain, risk putting undue stress elsewhere, causing new injuries. While podiatrists such as Norman can provide palliative care and treat infections with antibiotics, even his work has its limits. "I see many problems that require a week or a month's rest," he says. "But 'take a night off' is as much as I can say, or they wouldn't come back to me again."

Michael Nunn, first soloist with the Royal Ballet company before he and William Trevitt formed their own company, the Ballet Boyz, says dancers often refuse to admit they are in trouble. "When you're part of a big company, you're always wanting to elevate yourself within the hierarchy. You don't want to be seen as the one who's injured. So people do push themselves more, especially when they're young." He has done it himself, dancing with a damaged achilles tendon for 18 months before finally going for surgery. By that point, it wasn't easy to find someone willing to take on the job.

Men, who wear softer canvas shoes, suffer different problems from women. Jumping and lifting put the biggest strain on their feet, so ankle and muscular injuries are common. Trevitt remembers playing Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream with a twisted ankle. "I couldn't move it sideways or flex it because it was too painful, so I didn't do the part too well. But it was a big role and I really wanted it." He and Nunn have been far more careful since they started out on their own, because if they don't perform, the company doesn't get paid. "At the bigger companies, you don't get to choose whether you've done enough on a particular day," says Trevitt. "You just have to keep working."

Most dancers have also had at least one bad experience with a doctor who has made them wary of seeking medical advice: the most common is being told by a GP to give up dancing. Norman's very first dance case, 20 years ago, was that of a prima ballerina whose career was nearly ended by a doctor's insensitive treatment of ulcers between her toes. "Reassuring dancers can be tough," he says.

There is the added complication of the language barrier: Norman administers to dancers from around the world. "You have to explain very carefully what you're going to do. If you're removing a nail, they're terrified they'll never be able to dance again - but in fact some can dance the same day."

In the meantime, self-treatment is the norm. Some is benign: wrapping feet in tape, or lamb's wool, or stuffing chamois leather and old pairs of tights into pointe shoes. Some dancers have more eccentric rituals, such as blowing into shoes before putting them on, or covering their feet in glue and other chemicals to make them stick. More dangerously still, many attack their feet with scissors and razor blades.

The question of pain management raises a laugh from almost every dancer I speak to. "There's something called ... Nurofen," says one. Another jokes that it's a sponsorship opportunity missed. The culture of popping painkillers is widespread. "You don't stay on one brand for too long," explains Nunn, who has stopped taking them since setting up the Ballet Boyz. "As long as you change fairly often, they keep working."

Ask which is the most painful ballet to dance and the women are unanimous: Swan Lake. With its endless pas de bourrés - running tiptoe on the spot - and the chorus appearing in all four acts, there is no let-up. "Doing it in the round at the Royal Albert Hall is a killer," says Harrington, "because it's such a huge stage to run around." The intensity of the steps means that as soon as you stop, cramp floods your legs and feet. Try that eight times a week and your feet swell so much you have to ice them just to be sure of getting them back into your shoes. Dance of the Cygnets? More like Murder on the Dancefloor.

Jennie Harrington
English National Ballet

"I've had a broken toenail but it's getting better now. It's awful, really painful. I was wearing shoes that were too soft so my nail cracked, but I didn't even realise until I got home and saw the blood in my shoe. You're so used to bruised toenails, you just get on with it. It's quite masochistic"

"I had to take a night off from Sleeping Beauty last season because of a bunion on my left foot. It got really bruised. The side of my foot went totally black and my big toe was all numb. I wear a support bandage and some pads over my toes, and use furniture polish to harden up my shoes"

Hannah Bateman
Northern Ballet Theatre

"I'm lucky because my feet are square, so all my toes are the same size. People have problems when their second toe is bigger than the first: the pressure doesn't distribute equally. Your first injury is always the worst, because it scares you. I have a recurring neuroma [inflammation] on one of my toe joints. I control that with ice and strengthening exercises"

Michael Nunn
The Ballet Boyz

"I broke my left big toe playing Benvolio at the Royal Opera House. The floor cloth was full of holes, and I got my toe stuck in one. That didn't heal for 18 months. When they opened it up they found some bone fragments that were aggravating it. The four-inch scar on my left leg is from an operation on my achilles tendon. I've broken one of my right toes, too"

"I broke a metatarsal on stage once. I was performing a solo and heard this crack. I didn't realise I'd broken it at the time, because you're used to taking pain. I also get soft corns - little bits of hard skin between your toes. They're agony when you're on stage"

Kenneth Tindall
Northern Ballet Theatre

"I sprained my ankle recently, after landing badly from a jump. I performed the next week - it was really painful and still quite swollen. I've seen dancers go on stage strapped up when they really shouldn't be on at all. That's just a dancer's life"

William Trevitt
The Ballet Boyz

"We dance barefoot so we get a lot of unpleasant hard skin that splits at the joints of your toes. I've got one big toe an inch shorter than the other one, so I have to wear different size shoes. I was diagnosed with club feet when I was born, and my mother was told that if she wanted me to be a dancer she could put my shoes on the wrong feet to correct them - but she didn't"

· English National Ballet's Alice in Wonderland is at Manchester Palace Theatre (0870 160 2832), October 19-28, then touring. Northern Ballet's The Three Musketeers is at the Alhambra, Bradford (01274 432 000), September 23-30, then touring. The Ballet Boyz perform Encore at Sadler's Wells, London EC1 (0870 737 7737), September 26-October 30
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Emma John discovers what ballet does to a dancer's feet

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It should have been the best day of Jennie Harrington's life. Joining English National Ballet and dancing in the chorus of Cinderella was the fulfilment of a lifetime ambition - but the pain gave her the shock of her life. "I came off stage, walked into the dressing room, and burst into tears.