Flatfoot Dysfunction

If you have flat feet, then you understand that sometimes nothing seems to help but simply resting your feet. The pain and swelling of flatfoot dysfunction is progressive, which means it alters the way your foot bears weight and functions. You may start to feel like supportive shoes or inserts just aren’t enough. You start to experience more fatigue in your feet, your shoes begin to wear down from the way you walk, and eventually you have pain when walking. When this happens, the issue can progress up your leg affecting how you stand and move. It’s important to know how to recognize when support has stopped benefiting your feet.

What Causes My Arch To Collapse?

For your arch to stay intact, you need all the bones, ligaments, and tendons working together. If one stops functioning normally, they all start to break down. A tendon located on the inside of your foot and ankle called the posterior tibial tendon is what supports your arch as you walk.

When this tendon becomes overstretched or injured your arch slowly collapses.

When your arch begins to break down you’ll notice your heel starting to roll outward and your midfoot collapses towards the ground. Every step you take will start to cause more pain on your foot because it isn’t working how it should. This uneven distribution of weight and pressure can cause irritation to many structures of the foot.

How Will I Know My Foot Is Getting Fatigued?

The best way to identify the early stages of flatfoot dysfunction is by knowing your symptoms. Often, flatfoot develops over years which is why these symptoms may go unnoticed. You may experience:

• Pain or aching along the inside of your ankle.

• Swelling after standing or sitting for long periods of time.

• Feelings of fatigue in your foot by the end of the day.

As the dysfunction progresses you will start to see:

• Your arch flatten as you are standing on your foot.

• Your heel begin to roll outward.

• Shoes wearing uneven on the bottom.

• Feeling like you can’t walk as smoothly as you used to.

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How Will I Know Support Is No Longer Helping?

Orthotics and supportive shoes are great because they help realign your foot and ankle to function properly. But they can’t do it for you indefinitely. If you’re continually wearing orthotics and find that you’re still in pain, it may be time to take a closer look at your feet. You might find yourself having to rely on your inserts just to get through the day. Or perhaps you can walk

farther without them than you can with them. Walking starts to become exhausting, even standing for short periods of time may cause discomfort.

These are all signs that patients come into Treasure Valley Foot and Ankle with because their activities of daily living are starting to become affected by the condition.

How Will Walking Be Different With Flatfoot Dysfunction?

You’ll start to change the way you walk in order to compensate for the pain you’re feeling. You may put more weight on the outside of your foot when walking or take shorter steps than you normally would. While these things may help your pain in the short term, they can cause other problems down the road.

You may start to feel like your ankle or knee is stiff. You may lose balance when trying to walk on uneven surfaces. All of these things happen because your foot is no longer functioning properly and your body is moving differently to compensate.

When Flatfoot Dysfunction Requires Advanced Care

If you’ve tried conservative management and your condition has continued to progress, it’s time to take a closer look at your foot. Catching these problems early is always preferred, so if you are experiencing increasing pain, deformity, or loss of function it’s time for further evaluation.

Your doctor will order imaging to determine severity of the issue and assess your feet while you walk.

Treatment doesn’t always mean surgery. In many cases we can implement specific physical therapy to help with your dysfunction and determine ways to better manage your load. If there is significant damage to your tendon and foot structure, surgery can help realign your foot. There are procedures to help correct both soft tissue and boney deformities to create a stable foot.

What’s Recovery Like From Flatfoot Correction?

No matter if you have flatfoot corrected with conservative or surgical management, you will have a recovery timeline to follow. Just because the problem has been fixed doesn’t mean you’re good to go right away. You will have physical therapy to strengthen your foot again, restore balance, and you’ll need to slowly build yourself back up to where you want to be.

There are some things you can do to help yourself in recovery and continue to prevent your foot from progressing in the future. Whether that be wearing proper footwear, limiting your activity levels, or continuing to see your doctor to check in on your feet.

Does Flatfoot Dysfunction Ever Improve On Its Own?

Unfortunately, like many conditions of the foot flatfoot doesn’t just improve over time. The more you wait to address your condition, the more damage you’re doing to the joints of your foot. By coming in early you allow yourself to have more treatment options. Learn the difference between normal arch fatigue and progressive flatfoot dysfunction and take charge of your symptoms before they progress.

If you have any questions about Flatfoot Dysfunction or any other foot condition feel free to reach out to our offices anytime or schedule an appointment with one of our doctors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is affected by flatfoot?

Everyone is born with flat feet and only develop arches as they learn to walk. Many different factors can play into flatfoot development as you get older.

Can you have flat feet and not know it?

Many people don’t realize they have flat feet. While having flat feet isn’t painful in itself, if the foot begins to collapse as you stand on it, it can cause pain and dysfunction up your leg.

When you should worry about flat feet?

If you’re concerned about your flat feet because you’re in pain or they’re collapsing when you stand, make an appointment with your doctor. We can determine the cause of your flatfoot and provide you with several treatment options to try before considering surgery.