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podiatrist Santa Barbara

What Types Of Footwear Are Bad For Your Feet?
There are so many shoes to choose from. Whether you prefer clogs or stilettos, you can never go wrong with the right pair. What would a podiatrist Santa Barbara tell you when it comes to the different types of footwear that are bad for your feet?

1. Flip-flops

The most common offender when it comes to feet health are flip-flops. They’re easily accessible since they’re sold in almost all beach-side shops as well as footwear stores. Don’t let their simplicity fool you into thinking that they don’t come with their own risks.

The lack of support at the top of your feet makes you drag legs as you walk when you’ve worn flip-flops for long periods of time. If you are overweight, prolonged wear of flip-flops tend to lead to Achilles pain and injuries when wearing them for activities that require a lot of mobility and support.

2. High heels

Wearing a pair of high heels can be seen as a fashion statement. If you are going to a party wearing a dress, you’re almost always going to opt for the spike heels. We’ve been told time and time again by doctors that the higher the heels, the worse the injuries.

When your foot is in a high heel, the Achilles tendon is shortened. Wearing heels higher than two inches for long durations will cause Achilles tendonitis. When the ball of your foot is always exposed to the abnormal amount of pressure from wearing spike heels, they’ll become thinner. The thinner they are, the higher the risk of getting metatarsalgia which is an acute pain in the foot that might indirectly lead to stress fractures from wearing spike heels.

3. Pointy shoes

The first time you’ve worn pointy shoes, you’ve already felt the discomfort that comes along with them. If you make a habit of wearing pointy shoes, then you might’ve already developed callouses on the edges of your toes.

The callouses that you can get isn’t even the worst thing with pointy shoes. You can also get a hammertoe which is a condition where your toe is forcibly bent downwards rather than forwards. Another indirect cause of this is a condition many podiatrists deal with: bunions.

4. Ballet flats

Similar to the flatness of flip-flops, ballet flats offer almost no support to the top of your feet. A podiatrist Santa Barbara residents would go to will have similar symptoms of foot aches from someone wearing either type of pair though there are some distinct isolated issues as well.

The protection ballet flats provide for your feet are not enough to justify the constant usage of a pair. They still carry the same risk of tendonitis which comes from footwear that lacks support for certain areas of the foot. There are ballet flats that are a bit better than the rest though.

Try bending the ballet flats to see if they give in. If they do, that means that they don’t have a real sole and shouldn’t be used for everyday wear. The ones that don’t have enough support for the bottom of your foot.
podiatrist Santa Barbara
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podiatrist Santa Barbara

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