what’s the difference?
Could you please tell me the difference between a podiatrist and a chiropodist. Are they just two different names for the same thing? There are is only 1 podiatrist in my city and the rest are all chiropodists or foot specialists. Is there a difference?
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Vivian Abrams DPM
A chiropodist (at least in the US) is the predecessor of podiatrists. Those individuals arose out of a real need for conservative treatment of foot problems, which were grossly overlooked by general medicine and orthopedics at the time. They trimmed corns, calluses, nails, made pads and arch supports among many other conservative treatments. As time went on some forward thinking pioneers thought about ways to improve what they were doing and learned to do small surgical procedures. This grew and others wanted to do more involved and in depth medical and surgical treatments. This was the beginning of the switch to becoming podiatry. To my knowledge there are no practising chiropodists in the US. I can not say what this is in other countries.