There are many ways to treat heel spur and plantar fasciitis. First of all, especially in the early stages, there is a lot you can do yourselves (most of our site is dedicated to this). If this fails, many therapists can help you, but it can be hard to find the best one. On this page we will sum up all options, but make sure to click on the links for more detailed information for each treatment.
How long does an average treatment take?
Luckily most people recover from their heel spurs in a few months. We have performed a poll among our users with over 40.000 votes and it turns out two thirds of all patients recover in less then half a year. See the table for all results:
| Period with heel spur issues | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0-6 months | 67,3% |
| 6-12 months | 18.7% |
| 1-3 year | 9% |
| More then 3 years | 5% |
As you can see, there is still quite a percentage that suffers very long. This is realy what you should avoid. Onze the heel spur is chronic, it is very hard to get rid of it, make sure you do not ignore the early signals!
Self Help therapy
Luckily there is quite a lot you can do yourself. However, keep in mind: if the complaints do not disapear, or even get worse, make sure to see your doctor!
- Shoes: start with wearing good shoes with good support and cushioning
- Inlay soles: if you shoes do not give you enough support, insert inlay soles or silicon heelcushions
- Stretching: a few simple stretching exercises a day can do miracles
- Rest: very easy to say, but sometimes hard to accomplish: take it easy and try to sit down instead of standing or walking long times. if you are a sporter, reduce activity or switch to a sport that is gentler to the feet
- Try to reduce weight
- Wear a night splint or Strassburg Sock at night
- Sometimes using painkillers or NSAID's helps, though usually they fight the symptoms more then the actual cause
If all this does not help, go see a doctor:
Therapist treatment
If self aid does not help, you should go to a good therapist, usually a physio-therapist or podo-therapist.
- Inlay soles: A podotherapist will usually build you custom inlay-soles, specific for your feet. These will usually correct any imbalance in your feet.
- Exercises: A physiotherapist will usually give you some exercises to strengthen and correct your foot and leg muscles
- Shockwave (ESWT) is a very standard therapy with often good results
- Surgery: In serious cases you might even consider operating your foot, but keep in mind that recovery usually takes long and results are nott guaranteed!
- Injections with steroids are still applied quite often, but the results are often short-lived. Repeated injections can even cause serious damage to the fascia tissue!
Alternative or Experimental Treatment
Next to the standard therapies we already discussed, there are also some relatively new or experimental therapies. These may not be always scientifically proven, but many still report success:
- Triggerpoint massage
- Dry-needling
- Acupuncture
- GPS: Rich plasma Injection
And there may be many more that we will not discuss in detail, like osteopathie, homeopathie, abc therapie and many more.