Who Should Do My Diabetic Foot Exam?

I'm often asked by patients if their primary care physician can do their annual comprehensive diabetic foot exam. While the primary care physician is certainly capable of doing this exam, there are a number of reasons why most primary care physicians actually will refer the diabetic patients to us for this examination. 

First and foremost, we have the time to spend just on the foot. Your primary care physician is looking at everything from the top of your head to the bottom of your foot and everything in between. We take about 30 minutes to do this exam, just of your feet. 

The second thing is that we have specialized equipment that can pick up pathology earlier — for example, we have equipment that can look at your circulation much more closely, compared to a physical exam. We have some equipment that can pick up early nerve damage, showing if you have a loss of feeling in your feet at a much earlier time than a clinical exam. 

We also have a certified pedorthist on staff. That's someone who's gone to school to learn about medical shoe fitting and custom shoe inserts and foot and ankle bracing. If you have a problem with your foot, that may be coming from your shoe, then the pedorthist can modify your shoes — or even get you special shoes, if needed. 

For more information about this annual comprehensive diabetic foot exam, and why you should see your podiatrist for that, give us a call at 804-320-FOOT (804-320-3668), or check out the links below. Please help us spread the word about this simple but lifesaving exam — If you know someone who has diabetes, please share this post with them using the social sharing icons at the bottom of this page.