Diabetic Foot Care

Our Approach: Prevention Is the Whole Strategy

Diabetic foot care is the area of podiatry where routine attention changes outcomes most dramatically. The comprehensive diabetic foot exam checks three things that predict nearly every serious complication: protective sensation, circulation, and structural deformity. Losing protective sensation means your feet can no longer report injury through pain — a blister that would be trivial otherwise can progress silently to a deep ulcer.

Dr. Panchal's clinical research focus is wound healing, and that shapes how this practice approaches diabetic feet: aggressively, early, and with a bias toward preventing the wound rather than treating it after the fact. That means pressure offloading before ulcers form, therapeutic footwear for qualifying patients, and same-week access whenever something changes.

Recognizing the Signs: What to Check and When to Call

Look at your feet daily — tops, soles, and between every toe, using a mirror or a family member for the parts you cannot see. You are looking for cuts, blisters, redness, swelling, drainage, or any change in color or temperature. Numbness, burning, or tingling are early neuropathy signs worth reporting even in the absence of a wound.

Call the same day for: any open wound regardless of size, redness spreading beyond the edges of a sore, drainage or odor, a foot that is suddenly red, hot, and swollen (which can indicate infection or Charcot changes), or any new numbness. With diabetes, the appropriate response to a foot problem is always faster than it feels necessary.

Recovery: Protecting Mobility for the Long Term

Treated in their first days, most diabetic foot wounds heal well. The outcomes that go badly are almost always the ones that started weeks earlier. That timing difference — not the severity of the initial wound — is the strongest predictor of whether a problem stays small.

Ongoing care means scheduled comprehensive exams at least annually and more often with neuropathy, circulation problems, deformity, or a history of ulcers. Medicare and most plans cover diabetic foot exams and therapeutic shoes for qualifying patients precisely because prevention demonstrably reduces amputations. We coordinate with your primary care physician and endocrinologist so foot care fits into overall diabetes management.