Home > Blog > Plantar Fasciitis Causes, Symptoms and Physiotherapy Treatment
We all have a plantar fascia in both our feet (refer to diagram above), close to our heel - it's a very thick fibrous tissue that connects our heel bone (calcaneal bone) to the base of our toes.
It's #1 job is to ensure that the arch of your feet is strong and maintained.
Unfortunately, plantar fasciitis, which refers to a painful condition and inflammation of the plantar fascia, is a very very common foot condition that leads to:
Usually patients experience a sharp stabbing or tearing pain if they stand on their feet first thing in the morning or standing up after sitting/resting for some time.
It can be quite painful...and is a very common heel pain actually.
...but don't over-worry, plantar fasciitis is one of our senior physiotherapists bread-and-butter ie we're very used to treating such conditions in our physiotherapy clinics.
Plantar fasciitis pain is predominantly caused by inflammation, so clearly identifying the causes/factors of the inflammation will be the key to successfully treat this condition and to ensure that it doesn't come back.
The most common cause of plantar fasciitis is the anatomy and the way we walk (termed as biomechanics), and the most common finding is that patients with this condition often overly-pronate their feet as they walk.
What this means is that the inside part of the feet turns inwards too much as they walk, jog or run - pronation over-stretches the plantar fascia, and doing this repeatedly and consistently just means that it consistently damages the plantar fascia.
Of course, if patient also wear inappropriate or non-supportive footwear and they walk a lot on hard, flat and uneven surfaces, that increases the strain on the plantar fascia and that will:
Patients with plantar fasciitis report the pain experience as very sharp when the step on their feet
The pain starts of as sharp and stabbing, but it changes into more of a dull ache throughout the day, and this is because as we stand and walk, it actually stretches the plantar fascia.
Physiotherapy treatment plans and interventions depends on both the cause and the symptoms being experienced by our patients.
But before we can start with treatments, our foot and ankle senior physios will first need to:
We may use a combination of the following:
The earlier one seeks treatment for heel pains and plantar fasciitis, the better and faster one will recover.
The reason being that prolonged untreated plantar fasciitis can lead to worse orthopedic conditions
If you are unable to come to us immediately or if there is an element of delay, please consider doing: