End Your Heel Spur Pain

Stabbing, aching, frustrating heel pain can keep you from living the lifestyle you desire. Work and chores are miserable, and you have no energy or desire for activities you used to love. Although there are many possible causes of heel pain, one that people often ask us about is heel spurs.

Before we talk treatment for this condition, let’s start with a little background. Heel spurs are small protrusions of bone that accumulate under the heel bone, where it connects with the plantar fascia ligament (which runs across the bottom of the arch). You might have heard about plantar fasciitis before—it’s heel pain caused by tearing and stress in this ligament. Heel spurs often develop as a secondary response to plantar fasciitis that becomes chronic or isn’t treated successfully.

One thing that surprises most people is that heel spurs aren’t necessarily painful on their own. Obviously, if the bony prominence is in a sensitive spot, it can jab uncomfortably into the soft surrounding tissues when you walk. But more often, the real problem is plantar fasciitis.

If you have heel spurs and heel pain, our first step will be conservative care to get rid of the underlying plantar fasciitis. At Omega Medical Group (OMG), our treatments are geared toward keeping you as active as possible during your recovery period. We’ll work closely with you to develop a treatment plan. Stretching, physical therapy, and changes to footwear or activities are often involved, and if appropriate we may also recommend more advanced treatments such as custom orthotics or platelet-rich plasma therapy.

Most of the time, these conservative treatments are more than enough to resolve any pain or discomfort you may feel. However, if the heel spur is still causing pain even once the damage to the plantar fascia ligament is repaired, we can consider a more aggressive treatment, such as surgical removal of the spur. Fortunately, this is rarely necessary, and even if it is, our team is well trained in surgical and rehab techniques to minimize invasiveness, speed up recovery times, and reduce signs of physical scarring.

Whether caused by spurs, plantar fasciitis, or any other problem, make an appointment with the OMG team if you want to end your heel pain quickly and completely. You can call today at (305) 514-0404.