Flawless Feet Podiatry & Laser Clinic

Today Can Change Your Life: Find us near you

Flawless Feet offers several different clinic locations to meet the needs of our patients. Please choose a location that suits you.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/contact-us/

7 Causes of Ingrown Toenails

1- Badly cut toenails
2- Stubbing your toe
3- Repeated micro-injuries to your toe
4- Wearing shoes that are too tight
5- Picking at your toes
6- Sweaty feet, it softens the skin making it easier for toenails to grown inwards
7- Genetics

A few of these causes you can’t do anything about; you might be genetically pre-dispositioned to have ingrowing toenails or have inherited sweaty feet; accidents also happen, which may randomly cause your toenail to grow incorrectly. The others you do have control over. It is vital that you trim your (and your children’s) toenails correctly; straight across, do not curve down at the sides. You may love thin, pointy shoes, but if you have wide feet, you will be cramming your feet into them, putting pressure on them for hours.

If you’ve ever had an ingrowing toenail, you’ll know the agony it causes; the nail poking into your flesh can cause pain for every step you take. It can be difficult to sleep as even the weight of the duvet can be too much on your toe’ let alone the extreme shooting pains that happen if someone accidentally steps on your toe! Ouch- it doesn’t cover it!

Read more on our blog

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/7-causes-of-ingrown-toenails/

Another happy patient!

Teenagers are likely to have ingrown toenails, which is painful and annoying. They can stop them sleeping, playing sport and having fun.

This parent decided to break the cycle of ingrown toenails for good and book an appointment for their child. Their child will now have toenails that grow straight and pain-free.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/conditions-treated/ingrowing-nail-surgery/

As corns develop due to excessive pressures and forces, if we don’t remove the cause (excessive forces) the corn will often return.

There are 3 options when we talk about treating corns, this is divided into short term and long term management plans.

Short term debridement: Many people attend podiatry appointments for their corns regularly debriding/removing. This offers instant pain relief as the hard lump of keratinised skin has been removed from the area.

Long term offloading: Customised bespoke foot orthotics can offload corns and calluses through altering one’s biomechanics. A perfect example would be corns that develop under the 2nd metatarsal head (ball of the foot). We often develop corns here as our foot arch collapses, which reduces the pressure under the big toe joint. The pressure is then shifted over to the 2nd metatarsal head resulting in overload. Customised orthotics can restore the function of the big toe and reduce pressure under the 2nd metatarsal which in turn reduces how quickly the corn returns.

Surgical removal of corns: When long standing corns have become neurovascular, they are often too painful to debride deep enough to conservatively remove the excess tissue. Surgically removing the corn will cut off the vascular and nerve supply, while removing the entire lesion under local anaesthetic. This result can be both short term, and long term in nature depending on the lesion itself.

Use our online booking system to treat your corn before a simple corn develops into a more painful neurovascular corn.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/all-about-corns/

There are different types of corn

There are several different types of corns; however, the most common are heloma durum corns. These are purely corns that develop because of excessive pressure and consist of only keratinocytes.

They feel like a pebble or a foreign body stuck in the foot. These corns, if not treated, can develop into a more serious type of corn, known as a neurovascular corn. These are generally more painful as the tissue from the dermis has started to grow into the epidermis, and vice versa.

Learn all about the dreaded corn on our recent blog

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/all-about-corns/

Teach your children some life skills. Activities such as; sorting the recycling, frying an egg and cleaning the sink will really help them out later in life. Other skills you should add to the list are: cutting their toenails, checking their feet and tying their shoelaces. Here’s some foot-care tips to try with your children, think of it like as “at home pedicure!”

Take a read of our blog 👇🏽

Caring for children’s feet Using extra time at home to learn foot care life-skills. Tips to get your children's feet as best as they can be. Things you should be looking out for.

As podiatrists we are passionate about helping athletes, our goal is to keep you on your feet and performing at your best. CrossFit and Hyrox are incredibly rewarding but demanding sports, and your feet play a critical role in your performance and overall health.

If you're experiencing any foot or ankle pain, or if you want to optimize your training with preventive strategies, don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can ensure that your feet remain strong, healthy, and ready to tackle every workout challenge that comes your way.

Stay strong, stay safe, and keep pushing your limits! 💪🏽

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/lifestyle/getting-the-most-of-your-crossfit-and-hyrox-training/

Prevention is always better than cure, and there are several strategies you can employ to minimise your risk of injury:

👉🏽 A training plan for longevity: aiming for long term improvement slows the progressive overload phase needed to increase strength and stamina for Hyrox. Rather than rushing thorough to improve your running ability and overloading those strength sessions, a gradual increase allows your body to slowly adapt for the competitions to come.

👉🏽 Proper footwear: Invest in high-quality shoes designed for CrossFit or Hyrox. These shoes provide the necessary support, stability, and cushioning to handle various movements and surfaces.

👉🏽 Warm-up and cool down: Incorporate dynamic stretching and mobility exercises into your warm-up routine to prepare your muscles and joints. Post-workout, engage in static stretching to aid recovery.

👉🏽 Listen to your body: Pay attention to any signs of pain or discomfort. Early intervention can prevent minor issues from becoming major injuries.

👉🏽 Professional care: Book an appointment with a relevant healthcare professional to keep your body at peak performance. Think podiatrist for foot, ankle, and lower limb.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/lifestyle/getting-the-most-of-your-crossfit-and-hyrox-training/

CrossFit and Hyrox combine various elements of weightlifting, running, rowing, and body-weight exercises. This intense mix can sometimes lead to overuse injuries or acute injuries. Here are a few common foot and ankle injuries seen in these disciplines:

👉🏽 Plantar Fasciitis: Your plantar fascia is a thick band of tissue that connects your heel to your toes which runs across the bottom of your foot. It is one of the strongest structures in your body and takes a lot of the impact from your daily activities. Things under the most strain are the most annoying when something goes wrong.

👉🏽 Achilles Tendonitis: The Achilles tendon is one of the thickest, strongest tendons in the human body. Tendons are thick, fibrous cords of connective tissue that connect muscles to bones, facilitating movement. The function of the Achilles tendon is crucial for knee flexion and ankle plantarflexion, enabling actions such as running, climbing, and jumping. Tendinopathy is a thickening, change or pain within the Achilles tendon which usually develops due to repetitive stress.

👉🏽 Stress fractures: Stress fractures are usually overuse injuries. They happen when physical activity puts too much pressure on a bone, often the toes; and it doesn’t have enough time to recover.

👉🏽 Ankle sprains: Rapid changes in direction or missteps can easily lead to ankle sprains, which involve stretching or tearing the ligaments around the ankle. There are levels of ankle sprains, from minor to major sprains that require a lot of attention.

👉🏽 Patella tendonitis: The source of most cases of anterior knee pain characterised by a dull aching sensation at the beginning and towards the end of a workout. Storing and releasing energy in the quadriceps and patella tendon at an increased weight overloads the tendon leading to inflammation and pain. Your patella tendon is at an increased risk while training for hyrox due to exercises combining explosive weights and cardio.

Get proactive and reduce the likelihood of these injuries happening; look after your feet. Read this blog for our 5 prevention strategies.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/lifestyle/getting-the-most-of-your-crossfit-and-hyrox-training/

Has Wimbledon taken over your household?

Anyone for tennis? Look after your feet for the best performance on the tennis court

Introducing clinic room 3, at Sydenham

Most of the kit in here is neatly tucked away.

In our trolley and the cupboards at the back we have everything we need for routine podiatry foot care, diabetic foot reviews and our ultrasound machine, which we use to diagnose injuries.

Have you booked your appointment yet?

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/contact-us/sydenham-podiatry-clinic/

Are you in the midst of the CrossFit or Hyrox craze? We love it when fitness becomes a passion and love helping patients who are pushing their bodies to find out what they are capable of.

As podiatrists, we understand the unique demands that high-intensity workouts place on your body, especially your feet and ankles. CrossFit and Hyrox are popular and rigorous forms of functional fitness training that challenge your strength, endurance, and agility.

Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or new to the scene, understanding how to prevent and treat common foot and ankle injuries can help you stay in the game and achieve your fitness goals.

Take a read of our blog to help with common fitness injuries and how to treat and then prevent them.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/lifestyle/getting-the-most-of-your-crossfit-and-hyrox-training/

Your ankle joints facilitate both up-and-down and side-to-side movements of your foot. These joints are supported by numerous ligaments that stabilize them and connect the bones of your leg to those of your feet.

When you walk, your feet and ankles bear the weight of your entire body. The pressure increases significantly during activities like running or jumping, putting extra strain on your ankle joints, equivalent to several times your body weight. Consequently, they are more susceptible to injury.

Ankle pain can result from various causes, such as injury (e.g., stress fracture or ankle sprain) or medical conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. The pain sensation may range from sharp and shooting to dull and achy, depending on the underlying issue.

If you are constantly having to manage ankle pain, reach out to one of our podiatry clinics based in Sydenham high street, Covent Garden and Croydon.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/contact-us/

Who needs a high heel-to-toe drop shoe?

On average, most trainers have a heel-to-toe drop of around 8mm, which I think is a great start, and most people should generally, look for something similar. Who should be wearing 0 drop shoes?

Generally, I would only encourage those experienced runners to trial this, as long as they are not making drastic changes from their current running shoe. For 0 drop shoe you need to have really strong feet and lower limbs. Others who may benefit from a low heel-to-toe drop are those who frequently experience ankle sprains.

Elevating the heel increases ankle instability; therefore, this group of people generally will like this feel. Others may include trail runners for stability, etc, or often people with a Morton's neuroma…. Again, this is subjective, and for this level of advice, I would recommend consulting your podiatrist.

Who needs a high heel-to-toe drop shoe? Typically, those are super tight, non-yogis who have really tight hamstrings and calves. Anyone with lower back pain may also feel a little more supported in a higher heel as this can open up and offload these structures.

If you're interested in running, read the full blog on our website

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/this-years-list-of-podiatry-recommended-running-shoes-for-your-2024-marathon/

This Year's List of podiatry-recommended running shoes for your 2024 marathon

Summer is here, and the number of runners we see on a daily basis is increasing. Whether it be training for your first Marathon or you simply want to increase your fitness for that summer bod we've all never had. We were all at it. 🏃‍♀️

The biggest question we get asked as podiatrists is, 'what running shoes are good?'.

Now this is subjective, what is a great shoe for you, is not a great shoe for Sally next door. We're all different, and we all need differing levels of support.

That's why we are here, with a guide explaining what shoes are out there this year to increase your performance and reduce injury.

Take a read
https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/this-years-list-of-podiatry-recommended-running-shoes-for-your-2024-marathon/

Introducing clinic room 2 at our Sydenham Clinic

All the kit we need for routine podiatry appointments to the higher-end equipment we use to treat fungal nail infections and treat foot pain.

Have you been treated in here yet? It's a lovely big room with plenty of space for a family member of friend to sit with you.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/contact-us/sydenham-podiatry-clinic/

The Speedgoat and the Hoka Bondi are in our recommended running shoes for 2024 selection.

Millie one of our podiatrists have written a blog to help with,
-cushioning
-stsbility
-differences in heel-to-toe drop heights

Take a read and if you have any questions please DM us, we're here to help.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/this-years-list-of-podiatry-recommended-running-shoes-for-your-2024-marathon/

The 4 steps of a musculoskeletal assessment

1- History check
Firstly, we will take your full medical history, including anything related to the lower limb, history of your injury, and any previous treatment to have tried.

2- Non-weight bearing assessment
A non-weight-bearing musculoskeletal assessment is an evaluation of joints, muscles, and limbs without the person having to support their own body weight. This helps to better understand your body while checking for pain, stiffness, and mobility limitations. This approach helps in diagnosing issues related to joint function such as those caused by injuries or arthritis. Non-weight-bearing assessments are particularly useful for evaluating individuals who are unable to stand or bear weight comfortably due to pain, injury, or disability.

3- Weight bearing assessment
A full weight-bearing assessment is a detailed posture assessment, it helps us to understand more about the strength and structure under minimal stress.

4- Gait analysis
Gait analysis is an evaluation of walking patterns. It involves observing and measuring body movements, body mechanics, and the activity of the muscles while under different levels of stress. Your analysis can be performed through various methods including video observation, wearables, pressure sensors on the floor, and sophisticated systems like 3D motion capture that tracks how joints and limbs move.

Anyone can have a musculoskeletal assessment as biomechanics plays an important role in managing all lower limb concerns. They are most commonly performed for people who have a lower limb pain such as Achilles tendinitis, planter fasciitis or any pain relating to the lower limb.

If you are experiencing pain when walking or running, or want to improve your performance, book your musculoskeletal assessment.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/gait-analysis/musculoskeletal-assessment/

Introducing Millie,
She is a British Podiatrist who graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a first-class honour in Podiatry in 2020. She is a Member of the Royal College Of Podiatrists and on the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) Register.

Prior to joining Flawless Feet, Millie was working with a private podiatry clinic in Singapore. During this time, her practice was focused on musculoskeletal pathologies in the active population and soft tissue surgeries. Millie’s main expertise interests include conservative management of sports related injuries, heel pain, bunions and ingrowing toenails.

As she is active herself, participating in cycling, running, swimming and CrossFit, she enjoys working with those who have a higher physical output. Millie’s goal for treatment is to heal the injury whilst maintaining the preferred level of activity required by the patient. Millie believes injuries should be managed short term, but also long term, she believes resolving the pain and healing the injury is imperative, but preventing the injury from reoccurring is just as important.

Millie works with several conservative high intensity treatments that have widely been accepted as gold standard. She has been trained and certified in medical shockwave applications by the International Society of Medical Shockwave, allowing her to adapt the prescribed dosage to an array of conditions.

Clinical Interests;
SPORTS INJURIES
“Many people who run or have a higher physical output often experience pain which can be frustrating, painful and unmotivating. The most common conditions include plantar foot pain, ankle sprains and anterior knee pain. My goal is to get people back to their desired activity levels as soon as possible. This is done by utilising high-intensity conservative treatments to encourage faster cellular repair to get you back to your desired level of activity sooner”.

BUNION PAIN
“As someone who is genetically predisposed to bunions, I know first hand how important it is to manage and slow the development of bunions. They can be debilitating and the pain can last a long long time without management. Ideally, we want to remove the inflammation and kickstart some repair to the joint soft tissue to resolve some of the pain. Long term we need to realign the foot to offload any excess pressure to the wrong areas. Maintaining foot strength is also an imperative aspect in the management of bunions. This, of course is not easy, identifying the stage of the bunions and how functional it is needs to be carefully taken into consideration.”

PAEDIATRIC PODIATRY
“Often children are referred into podiatry due to experiencing pain, soft tissue disorders and gait and mobility restrictions. Many people aren’t aware that there are solutions out there available to improve symptoms.”

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/about/millie-brown/

Clinic room 1 in Sydenham, ready and waiting with all the kit needed to treat foot problems.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/contact-us/sydenham-podiatry-clinic/

We LOVE it when men take their health seriously, so why not treat your dad to a luxury health experience with our medical pedicure?

Our 30-minute treatment includes a full assessment to check issues caused by normal wear and tear – from discoloured nails, verrucae, calluses, and athlete's foot to any worrisome lumps and bumps – before giving your feet the ultimate pampering experience.

Get in touch if you'd like a voucher

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/podiatry/medical-pedicure/

Have you seen our new clinic?

Flawless Feet Podiatry and Laser Clinic has the most advanced laser technology and latest podiatry techniques. We treat nail fungus, ingrown toenails, verruca, warts, and common foot pain, giving your feet the love they deserve to keep you pain-free every step, every day.

Visit our blog to have a look around.

We look forward to welcoming you 🙂

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/blog/introducing-our-new-flawless-feet-clinic-in-sydenham/

Bare to Impress Nail & Cuticle Oil

💕 Softens and heals cuticles
💕 Strengthens brittle nails
💕 Deeply nourishes nail plate, locking in nails’ natural moisture
💕 Soothes dehydrated nails Restores healthy glow
💕 Prevents nail breakage
💕 Stimulates faster and stronger nail growth
💕 Improves the overall appearance of nails

Summer ready feet

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/products/callen-olive-ultimate-sole-baring-lotion/

Ultimate Sole Baring Lotion,

💕 Infuses skin with a high level of hydration
💕 Renews dull, flaky skin
💕 Promotes smoother, healthier and brighter skin
💕 Restores skin’s natural radiance
💕 Prevents skin damage
💕 Helps relieve tired legs & feet

Summer ready feet, buy from our online shop

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/products/callen-olive-ultimate-sole-baring-lotion/

Foot Sole & Heel Saviour Balm

💕 Soothes skin Replenishes dry skin
💕Melts into the skin giving instant hydration
💕Treats and prevents skin damage, cracked heels and calluses
💕Helps break down rough calluses and very dry skin to reveal smooth, healthy skin
💕Protects skin

Summer ready feet

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/products/callen-olive-foot-sole-and-heel-saviour-balm/

Deep Nourishing & Restorative Leg & Foot Serum,

💕 Calms itchy skin, making it feel supple and comfortable
💕 Combats chapped skin
💕 Replenishes dry skin
💕 Prevents skin damage
💕 Restores skin’s smooth texture
💕 Reveals younger-looking, healthy skin
💕 Moisturises deeply

Perfect feet for summer

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/products/callen-olive-deep-nourishing-and-restorative-leg-and-foot-serum/

Podiatrists have the knowledge and skills to assess, diagnose, and treat heel pain.

Here at Flawless Feet, we often use Shockwave therapy to treat heel pain. We have produced excellent results in alleviating pain and expediting the healing process in patients with chronic conditions that have not responded to conventional treatments.

https://www.flawlessfeet.com/heel-pain/shockwave-treatment-for-plantar-fasciitis-and-achilles-tendinopathy/