Dancing Dangers
While dance is a beautiful, passionate art form, the feet of dancers must endure considerable stress to produce all that lovely, fluid motion. In fact, dancers are among the most often seen clients in podiatry practices since they are susceptible to a variety of acute and even chronic foot and ankle injuries, not to mention a plethora of skin related conditions.
Some of the problems for which dancers frequently need treatment include:
- Skin conditions—The special footwear that dancers use, including ballet shoes, dance heels, and pointe shoes, can cause considerable rubbing creating blisters, corns, and calluses on the soles and toes. Protective pads and ongoing care are necessary to avoid infections. Athlete’s foot and nail infections are also commonly treated.
- Toe deformities—Since dancers are frequently performing movements that include pronation, bunions are a frequent occurrence and are exacerbated by the tight footwear that dancers use. Bruised and deformed nails, and hammertoes are also often seen in dancers.
- Injuries—All the jumping around often leads to falls and accidents causing sudden ankle sprains, breaks, and hairline fractures that can develop over time from all the continuous pounding. Overuse also causes conditions like shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and Achilles tendonitis.
Injuries for dancers come with the territory, and there is certainly no shortage of them with all the jumping, pointing, flexing, turning and gliding that dancers perform every day.
In order to mitigate these dangers and to help prevent future complications it is essential for dancers to work closely with an experienced podiatrist. At Fit Feet for Life, our team of board-certified podiatrists has access to advanced technologies and years of experience to help diagnose and treat a variety of foot and ankle problems, including heel pain, sports injuries, toe deformities, nail fungus, and plantar warts. Bonnie Sanchez, DPM, and Gregory Cook, DPM, provide high quality foot and ankle care to patients in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area at our five offices conveniently located in Sun City Center, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and our two Tampa locations. Please contact us for more information or to schedule an appointment.