I've been to the doctor for my plantars fascitis. I'm wearing support bands, using a night splint, doing foot and ankle exercises recommended by the Dr and my feet still hurt. Is there something else I need to do so I can dance again? The way my feet hurt right now I wondering whether I will be able to ballroom dance any time soon.

Thanks for your input.
P

I'm a novice dancer, but I am an experienced youth soccer coach. I've helped a lot of boys with plantar fasciitis. I've also had it pretty severely myself and have treated it successfully. You have my sympathy! Especially getting out of bed in the morning!

The most important first step is to understand what is causing the problem. If you do not have a life-long history of the problem, then the most likely culprit is your shoes. They need to provide good support and have adequate cushioning. When I have had boys get plantar fasciitis on the soccer team, I insist that they get rid of their shoes and get a high quality pair.

As you look for and eliminate the cause, you need to do exercises that will stretch the calf and Achilles tendon. There are many different exercises (you can find them all over the internet), and it helps to mix them up. Some are more effective on different parts of the mechanism, and it's hard to say which one will help the most or get at the exact thing that needs the most stretching.

Of course, a few extra pounds would make the problem worse if that were the case. But that problem can be a lot harder to solve.

Young boys heal pretty quickly, but I never had a boy out for more than 2 weeks, no matter how severe his case. I had a really bad case and once I got good shoes and exercised consistently, the pain vanished completely and has never returned. It took about 2 weeks.

Good luck.

Jim

Hi!

I've numerous foot ailments, including plantar fasciitis. As depiante said, exercises and correct shoes will make all the difference. Just to add to what has already been stated, I would recommend doing lots of stretches right before bed in addition to whenever else you do them. I found that if I did them right before going to sleep, the pain was much less in the morning. On top of the stretching, I found body rolling to be very effective. Basically, you take a soft rummer ball and use it to apply pressure to the muscles you want to stretch. You can find more information on www.yamunabodyrolling.com. I know there are other companies that do the same thing, but I happen to like this one.

Regarding shoes, you may want to give minimalist shoes a try. I'm not sure from you username is you are a man or a woman, so ignore the rest of this if it is not relevant to you. High heels, even if they're only an inch or so high, contribute to tightening your calves. While I wouldn't go so far as to say you should wear those crazy looking Vibram 5 finger shoes on a day to day basis, wearing very flat shoes helped me a lot. Yes, for dancing we have to wear the heels, but as soon as practice is over, I take a minute to stretch out my calves, and into flat shoes I go.

Anyway, I hope some of what you find on here is useful to you and that your feet heal up quickly. Best of luck to you!

I'm an ICU nurse and work 12hr shifts and started having plantar fasciitis and orthofeet shoes have solved my problem. I wish they were a little more stylish, but at this point I choose style over function. I see that they have a new color and I will most definitely purchase these again when they need to be replaced. These fit the bill! and the return on size went very smooth. So I am so happy! and so are my feet!

The padding wore out in my smooth shoes and activated my planters fascitis in my right foot again. I googled this and found some videos on how to use KT tape. It worked GREAT for me to practice each day getting ready for the comp I just danced last week. It got I danced 3 days and taped up both feet and ankles. I was amazed!

I had the exact same problem back in 2004 and went back and forth to the orthopedic doctor each month for 1 year. I tried anti-inflammatory pills, stretches, special shoes / special made orthotics and none of these worked. They were only like a band aid masking the pain / letting the problem drag out. I finally said, "Doctor, I can't do my job anymore (I stand up all day).. so will you just cut off my foot"? He responded, ok it's time for surgery. I didn't even know surgery was an option, so I did this (as it's an incision in the side of your heel / releasing the ligament / pressure). It healed up in no time... although you have to rub the incision constantly to make sure no scar tissue forms and it'll heal better. Ironically, 1 year after this situation was taken care of... my other foot / heel had the same plantar fasciitis symptoms. So I went back to the Orthopedic Doctor / Surgeon and told him my exact symptoms had returned to the other foot and I'd like to go straight to surgery i.e. which he did with no problem. For he knew I wasn't going to pussy foot around for another year in trying to make the pain go away as with my other foot. And the 2nd time... the doctor didn't pull all the stitches out... left just a little piece in. The wound got infected, he had to lance the area and fish around inside and pulled out the remaining stitch i.e. it started the healing process. So be sure to tell the doctor to pull out all the stitching:) And... I've never had any more pain in either foot and I still work 5 days a week on my feet at Disney. Plus I enjoy ballroom dance parties... since I'm a silver level / former Fred Astaire dance instructor.

While my feet were improving (I had soft tissue damage from care-giving, plus plantar fasciitis, plus an inflamed Baxter nerve keeping me in crutches for 8 months!!!), I wore SALSA DANCE sneakers once off the crutches. I kid you not, I was able to get back to dancing a few months sooner, because of dance sneakers (split sole, plenty of cushion, hard rubber smooth bottoms intended to allow spins).

I looked ridiculous wearing salsa sneakers for smooth dances (I like the Capezio Web sneaker with its spiderweb design, which fit me great with a wide toe box). But I wore them for everything - literally everything. Now, finally, I've graduated to a 1 1/2" heel.

I bought my dance sneakers larger in size so I could insert my orthotics. Once my foot had healed further, I moved into a Capezio practice shoe with low heel, and likewise put my orthotics in those.

I just wanted to make a shout-out for dance sneakers. If you need lots of foot cushioning, and want to insert orthotics, they work great! And, once you are back into regular shoes, you can use them at salsa clubs with your fellow salseros. I do that in Miami/Ft Lauderdale!

Good advice. I was introduced to dance sneakers by an instructor who liked them because (1) he danced 6-8 hours a day, and they gave his feet better support than regular dance shoes, and (2) if he needed to go out to his car for some reason, he didn't need to change shoes. Even if you don't (yet) have foot problems, dance sneakers are a good choice for dancing on non-wood floors.