Why you should choose Next Step Foot and Ankle Clinic for your Achilles Tendon problems:
What most podiatrists recommend: S-t-r-e-t-c-h.
Most foot doctors will recommend if you have an Achilles tendon problem that you begin stretching. Clinical evidence indicates that tendon lengthening never occurs with stretching. You might become a little more flexible but that is secondary to the muscle being more tolerant to the sensation of being stretched.
In other words, all that is accomplished by stretching is that the muscle that attaches to the tendon becomes more tolerant to the sensation of stretching and you can push harder. The muscle and the tendon really do not lengthen at all. Also, once the tendon is injured, does it make sense to put a lot of stress on that tendon in an effort to try and get it to heal? Probably not.
At Next Step Foot and Ankle Clinic, we do things differently….
Tendons need a few things to heal.
1: Nutritional Support
At Next Step Foot & Ankle Clinic, we have recommended supplements that help tendons receive the nutritional building blocks they required in order to heal.
2: Advanced Regenerative Medicine
At Next Step Foot and Ankle Clinic we have invested in equipment that can significantly decrease your recovery time from Achilles tendon issues. Shockwave therapy, laser therapy, and injection of Biologics can help regenerate diseased tendons. All of these have been shown to be very helpful in speeding tissue healing and allowing tissues to repair themselves.
3: Vascular Intervention
One of the main reasons that the Achilles tendon heals so slow is because it is a very dysvascular structure. Without blood the tendon does not get the building blocks it needs to heal. We use techniques to help dilate the blood vessels near and within the tendon. These have been a game changer for our Achilles tendon patients.
4: An evaluation and appropriate treatment of the cause of the Achilles tendon problem:
Almost everybody with an Achilles tendon problem has some degree of shortening of the Achilles tendon. This is a congenital problem and sometimes needs addressed surgically. We recently saw a 19-year-old girl who had undergone 2 previous Achilles tendon surgeries for ruptures. She has had chronic pain for 4 years. She is miserable going anywhere she has to be on her feet for an extended period. She also did not tolerate flat shoes because they hurt her Achilles tendon. For some unexplained reason, the surgeon who repaired the Achilles tendon never evaluated how tight it was. She had a very tight Achilles. Fixing the tendon rupture without fixing the short tendon (which is why it ruptured in the first place) is not likely to result in long term solutions to the problem. It certainly did not work in this poor girl’s case. She now has to have another surgery to lengthen the tendon to take some stress off the structures so it can heal.
5: Specific exercises to target the Achilles tendon and help it heal.
We prescribe specific exercises to help the tendon heal. These are simple things you can do at home to significantly improve your prognosis getting rid of the chronic Achilles tendon pain.
If you’ve been told stretching is the answer for your Achilles Tendon pain, and you are not getting any better, let the podiatrists at Next Step Foot & Ankle Clinic give you a 2nd Opinion about your tendonitis. We will develop a comprehensive plan to get rid of your Achilles Tendon Pain. Give us a call at 210.375.3318 or 830.569.3338.
