It is the little things! Plantar fasciitis is often an extremely stubborn problem. It often takes a combination of treatments to get this to resolve. Some of the core treatments involve appropriate shoes, prescription orthotics, night splints, icing and other anti-inflammatory treatments. However, sometimes it is surprising how effective it can be to do a little "fine tuning" to the treatment program.

We may have a patient where we have been doing all the right things as mentioned above. And then we question our patient: have you been stretching 4 times a day and the answer is no. And just something like ramping up the stretching to 4 times a day and/or being very consistent with a night splint can make all the difference.

Another example can be wearing the right shoes. Wearing flats or Converse shoes or other shoes that just don't have much structure or support are not helpful for this problem. It is critical to get the shoes that are recommended. For example very good athletic shoes with both a combination of structure and support. This is yet another example where adding this one item while continuing to do everything else, and finally the problem gets better!