What Is The Difference Between Podiatrists And Chiropodists?

Are you wondering about who among a Podiatrists and a Chiropodist is best qualified to take care of your foot health? Or is it just that you’re a bit confused about the terms and seek more clarification? Then, worry no more as that will be answered in this post.

Simply put, there is no difference between the two. Both words are used interchangeably to describe the same concept.

Both a podiatrist and a chiropodist are each feet expert that looks into foot problems and health issues concerning feet.

Chiropody is considered the ancient term for those who specialize in the health and well-being of your foot. According to the Institute of Chiropody and Podiatry, it wasn’t until more recent years that the professional title of podiatrist was created to recognize the specialist qualifications of the profession.

It is instructive to know that, most of the difficulties encounter from the accrued differences between the two terms is the issue of geographical location. While some countries like UK and Ireland makes use of Chiropodist. A country like the USA makes use of Podiatry. It is believed that the name Podiatry originates from the USA and is also more internationally recognized. Also, countries such as Canada and Australia have a detailed and aligned job description for the two terms.

Why The World Moves From Chiropodist to Podiatry

There are a few reasons apart from the above that brought about the usage of Podiatry in the stead of Chiropodist. And for trusted, complete, and state-of-the-art podiatry services, we recommend you visit Dr. Foot podiatrist in Singapore.

Confusion With Chiropractor

The confusion between chiropodists and chiropractors start to occur in the 50s and 60s due to the wide growth of chiropodists. While chiropractor is a therapy or a mode of treating people who are in pain by moving their joints and nerve, chiropodist on the other hand deals with healthiness and treatment of foot issues.

So, to avoid future confusion of the two terms, the word Podiatry is adopted to cover the term Chiropodist.

Clearer Semantic Root

The term podiatry better describe ankle and foot care than chiropody. This is due to the origin of the constituent’s words that form the two terms.

Chiropody is made up of two roots viz ‘chiro’ which means hand and ‘pod’ which means ‘foot’ in Greek.

While the root words of Podiatry are ‘pod’ which means ‘foot’ and ‘iatros’ which means ‘physician’. This clearly shows that making use of Podiatry instead of Chiropody is more clearer and reasonable.

A Chiropodist Or Podiatrist Carry Out The Following Activities;

  • Must be able to perform any podiatric surgery related to the foot and ankles.
  • Must be able to perform microsurgeries and reconstructive surgeries.
  • Must be able to perform physical examinations and study the medical histories of patients.
  • Must be able to diagnose and treat conditions like ingrown toenails, flat feet, cracked heels, Athlete’s foot.
  • Must be able to administer anesthetics and also sedation for conditions related to the foot and ankles.
  • Must be able to prescribe medications
  • Must be able to interpret X-rays and also other medical and imaging studies, giving podiatric advice and diagnosis
  • Must be able to carry out certain physical therapy, prescribe, order, and fit prosthetics, casts, insoles, and orthotics for patients.
  • Must be able to diagnose and treat sports-related injuries, including setting fractures.
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