“I’m not sure how I’ve managed to get a nail infection. I have regular pedicures.” This is the type of comment I hear a lot at my clinic, Callen Olive. It usually comes from people who take pride in taking care of themselves and, to their dismay, develop a foot complaint.
The simple answer is that salon pedicures do not meet everyone’s foot health needs.
But don’t get me wrong, by no means do I intend to undermine the role of pedicures. They are a fantastic way to keep your feet looking and feeling great and provide you with a dose of well-deserved self-care. However, pedicures only scrape the surface, and in the long run, they might not give your feet the treatment they need.
It’s only natural that our feet wear and tear as we grow older. If you think about it, they take us everywhere we go every day. So, they are going to deteriorate. Besides, over time your feet may naturally develop a foot problem in the same way your teeth may develop caries even though you brush them daily.
A standard pedicure cannot treat some common foot complaints such as corns, callus, and ingrowing or fungal toenails effectively. Pedicures beautify the feet, that’s all. They make them cosmetically look and feel better but only for a short period of time.
Another issue is that beauticians may not be able to recognise that there is a foot problem, leaving your foot health concerns undiagnosed or untreated. Alternatively, they may attempt to fix the issues but fail to treat them effectively because they don’t have the right qualifications to do it. For example, some beauticians/nail techs use scalpel blades and are not professionally allowed to or don’t follow the advised standard of sterilisation, such as using an autoclave to disinfect the pedicure instruments.
That being said, there are outstanding beauticians too who will deliver a high-quality pedicure. We work really well with our local beauticians and have a great relationship with them and many shared clients.
When to see a beautician vs a podiatrist?
If you have no chronic health conditions that can affect the legs and feet, have no skin or nail pain and are happy with your pedicure results, stick with the beautician.
Meanwhile, if you have a medical condition such as diabetes, arthritis (that can affect the legs and feet), pain anywhere in the feet, callus or cracked heels that are too thick to be filed away or corns present, seek a podiatrist. A podiatrist will be able to tailor an effective treatment plan for any foot concern to prevent it from worsening as things only deteriorate over time.
One good way of identifying if a pedicure meets your needs or if it would be advisable to have a podiatry treatment is to determine if the pedicure needs to fix your foot problem. If the answer is yes, then you may want to consider a medi pedi (medical pedicure).
One significant difference between a podiatrist and a beautician is that podiatrists have a 3-4 year medical degree solely dedicated to the lower limbs. A more obvious difference is our practical ability to use scalpel blades/specialist equipment. This skill enables us to work with great care and precision to remove all the dead skin and corns, leaving the skin feeling soft, smooth, and refined. Believe me when I say your feet will look and feel decades younger in a matter of minutes. More so, they will feel lighter when walking.
Personally, I love the instant results you get. It makes me very satisfied with my job, especially when I see my clients dance out of my consulting room.
Some podiatrists like me will provide a luxury medi-pedi which is the ultimate foot treatment – a facial for the feet! This pedicure fuses both cosmetic and medical foot treatments. Some clients will come to us to have it done and then pop along to the beautician for some toenail paint or nail art to finish the look. Or they want to match their hand polish with their toenails.
Is your pedicure meeting your foot health needs?
Either way, when you have a pedicure, your feet get some much needed and well-deserved TLC from either your beautician, podiatrist, or both.
With Callen Olive, it’s my intention to raise the awareness of the importance of foot health from both cosmetic and medical perspectives. I do not feel you get one without the other, and it just comes down to what your feet need and your health demands.
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