At Nest Health Clinic, we can provide you with the care you need. Our Podiatrist, sometimes called a foot doctor, focuses on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management of the health of your feet.

We often see patients who are suffering from:

• Calluses
• Fungal infections
• Ingrown toenails
• Irritated skin
• Heel spurs
• Plantar fasciitis
• Cracked heels
• Acute or chronic pain in the toes, foot, ankle or leg

Additional services we provide include:

• Podiatric surgeries
• Advice on choice of footwear
• Analysis of walking and running action
• Orthotic prescription and review
• Assessment of peripheral vascular disease, diabetes foot health, and those with immunosuppression, autoimmune and neurological conditions

Podiatrists are specifically trained to prevent, diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate all conditions and injuries of the feet and legs. We provide individually developed care plans based on your input, our holistic assessment, and our extended range of professional knowledge to obtain your goals so you live life to the fullest.

We commonly treat:

• Bone and joint disorders
• Soft-tissue (muscle/tendon/ligament) injuries
• Neurological diseases, including neuropathy. We also help with conditions such as Parkinson’s and Motor Neuron Disease
• Blood circulation problems
• Disorders in children
• Injuries caused by poor walking and running styles
• Skin pathologies, such as nail care, corns and calluses, warts/verruca/papilloma, as well as fungal skin and nail infections.
• We are also experienced in treating any other issues affecting the legs

Toe nail cutting is the bread and butter for us at Nest Health Clinic. Proper nail care can essentially help prevent you from getting Ingrown Toenails, tears to your skin, and finally pain in your toes.

Excessively long toenails can cause you get very thick nails, develop pressure lesions, not to mention how they look. Indeed, long toenails can even cause difficulties in wearing your shoes.

The Podiatrists at Nest Health Clinic are trained in correct nail cutting techniques. We have specialised, and fully sterilised, equipment. This equipment allows our podiatrists to combat thick and deformed toenails.  Furthermore, we will initially assess your foot health. Doing so, we can best prevent any harm to you, such as ulcerations, infections, and ingrown toenails.

Fungal nail infections (Onychomycosis) are commonly seen by a Podiatrist. Some research reports that 35 million people worldwide, with seniors at a 50% risk, have a fungal nail.  Whilst common, there are treatments for fungal nails, depending on the severity.

Our Podiatrists will help identify and manage your fungal nail infections. Interestingly, there are four general types of fungal infections:

• Superficial Onychomycosis
• Distal or proximal Superficial Onychomycosis
• Distal Lateral Superficial Onychomycosis
• Total Dystrophic Onychomycosis

Each type appear differently, and their treatments change. There are a range of topical over the counter treatments available, laser therapies, along with oral medications prescribed by GPs.

Sometimes, thick toenails mimic fungal infections. How do you tell the difference? Book a consult with us and our Podiatrists can investigate this for you.

Ingrown Toenails are a particularly painful condition. Certainly these are best treated by a podiatrist. Ingrown toenails occur because the toenail cuts into skin. Additionally, this wound can then potentially cause an infection.

Thankfully, our foot doctors at Nest Health Clinic can help those in Langwarrin and Frankston. Come talk to us or give is a call if you need an ingrown toenail removed or surgery. We have the qualified professionals to ensure you are given the appropriate treatment.

What are the signs that you need to get an Ingrown Toenail Removed?

Ingrown toenails are usually quite noticeable. Generally, we diagnose ingrown toenails by:

• Extreme pain (even bed sheets will cause pain)

• Swelling

• Bright red glossy skin

• Pus or bleeding

• Sometimes a bad smell.

There are many different reasons someone might have an ingrown toenail: incorrect nail cutting technique is the most common reason, but also shoes that don’t fit right, toe nail shape can also cause ingrown toenails, or sometimes even injuring your toes can cause an ingrown toenail to happen.

Antibiotics are often required. However, if you do not remove ingrown toenail the infection may return. Nest Health Clinic recommends having us treat your ingrown toenail. Sometimes, treating these yourself may make it worse.

Our podiatrists can often remove the nail spike within a normal consult. If your Ingrown toenail is too bad though, it may need a basic nail surgery. SNest Health Clinic regularly performs these surgeries, and our team can talk you through the operation before you decide to go ahead.

If you feel like you might have an ingrown toenail, get in touch with us at Nest Health Clinic to get advice from our podiatrists. We can offer treatments or removals depending on your situation. Call (03) 8759 6477 to make an appointment

Biomechanics is the study of human movement. For podiatry this involves watching how the feet, ankles, legs, knees, hip, and back move. Our Podiatrists will often assess you during walking and running, but also in crawling, dancing, and other movements.

Our Podiatrists often find altered biomechanics due to leg length differences, heel pain, heel spurs, arthritis, scoliosis. We are also experienced in helping after previous broken bones or surgeries (such as knee replacements).

Having flat feet can cause stress on the joints in your feet and legs. Such stress can injure your tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones. Alternatively, while high arch feet will still injure your feet, they also lack shock absorption.

One small change in how you move can undoubtedly impact the rest of your body. As the song says ‘the foot bone is connected to the leg bone…’

More often pain will develop over a prolonged time, but getting treatment early is key to long term results. While Nest Health Clinic do use orthotics in treatment, there are also other options. We also consider changing your footwear, wearing compression wear, strapping, and muscle stretching and strengthening.

At Nest Health Clinic we pride ourselves on completing a full assessment and tailor making a treatment plan that suits:

• Your needs
• Personal situation ( sports and work for example)
• Financial restrictions
• Physical capabilities

Heel pain is a commonly presenting pathology for a Podiatrist. While there are many things that can cause heel pain, below are some of the common causes

Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis/Fasciosis is a common complaint that Podiatrists treat. This condition affects the Plantar Fascia, a band that connects the heel to the ball of your foot. It presents with a sharp pain in the underneath of your heel and along the arch, most commonly in the first steps after resting or sleeping.  Plantar fasciitis can affect one or both feet.

Heel spurs

Heel Spurs are bony growth of the heel bone. Heel spurs are common either under or behind the heels. In some cases they cause pain, but there is rarely any visible features. A high proportion of people have heels spurs without any symptoms.

Cracked heels

Heel cracks, or fissures, occur frequently and are often quite painful. Heel cracks occur when the skin is unable to stretch and rebound from an applied force, such as walking. Heel cracks are often made worse by dry skin, not wearing socks or hosiery, and open footwear such as thongs. Heel cracks can result in further complications, such as infection.

Pediatric (Child) foot assessment and management:

• Foot health screenings
• Heel pain
• Footwear screenings and advice
• Sports Podiatry:
• Acute and Chronic Leg, Ankle, Foot, and Toe Injuries
• Footwear review and advice
• Dry Needling

Foot health assessments covering:

Diabetes foot

Diabetes mellitus causes many varied complications to your feet, with the most severe being ulceration and amputation of your foot or leg. The three major concerns includes:

• Poor blood supply, or Peripheral Vascular disease, to feet. This potentially leads to slow healing rates, ulceration , and in severe cases gangrene.
• Loss of feeling, otherwise known as Peripheral Sensory Neuropathy. Individual sloose the feeling in their feet, leading to risk of injury, ulceration, falls risk, and difficulty with fitting shoes.
• Skin issues, including dry skin, cracked heels, corns, calluses, along with fungal and bacteria infections of the skin and nails.

While the potential risks are severe, luckily many complications are avoidable with regular care and assessment. This is why we adopt the International Working Group for the Diabetic Foot guidelines and recommend regular reviews with your podiatrist, along with at least an annual Diabetes foot health assessment.

Nest Health Clinic would like to show our appreciation of our Veterans. We would like to thank them and their loved ones for their service, and sacrifices made, to our country. Therefore, we incorporate our DVA Premium Foot Assessment. We will offer this assessment all valid Veterans.

The assessments are provided by us based on clinical need. Over our first few appointments we aim to complete a detailed health check of your feet. While we adapt the program for every individual Veteran, the below example shows the assessments we may complete:

Appointment 1:

• Primary foot health assessment
  • Including a review of your skin and foot shape
• Blood circulation assessment, this is done to understand your ability to heal from injuries

Appointment 2:

• Joint health assessment. With this assessment we look for stiffness in joints, along for arthritis, and the quality and direction of your joint motion.
• Muscle strength testing. Muscle strength helps to keep us walking and can be beneficial in reducing your falls risk.

Appointment 3:

• Gait/walking assessment. When we understand how your body moves while walking, we can help with various walking pains, falling risks, and which shoes to choose to wear.
• Footwear assessment. The shoes we wear are highly important to our foot health. the wrong shoes can stop us walking, cause pain, and make corns and calluses worse.

In addition to the above assessments, we will also provide any needed care at each appointment, such as Podiatric nail care for example. All we need is a valid referral from your General Practitioner prior to your initial appointment.