A Chiropodist and a Podiatrist are medical professionals dedicated to studying, diagnosing, and treating disorders of the feet, ankle, and lower legs. A chiropodist is an older term, not as often used in Australia.
Suppose you are searching on Google for a professional that can help you with foot pain or discomfort. In that case, I recommend that you try to find a local podiatrist by entering the term podiatrist and then the suburb or location.
E.g. podiatrist Marrickville or podiatrist Leichhardt, if you need to expand the possibilities use something like podiatrist inner west.
This search will help Google to narrow down the possibilities to a local podiatrist near you, registered in the profession and capable of assisting you with your foot and ankle problem.
A Pedorthist is a professional with specialised training to modify footwear and create supportive devices that can correct leg length difference and biomechanical imbalance.
Orthotics are often diagnosed by a podiatrist and created by pedorthists. In some cases, the diagnosis is made while the patient is lying down and therefore not weight-bearing and the plaster cast is created.
The Pedorthist will interpret the diagnosis using a plaster cast, or digital scan of the feet and a written diagnosis of changes required to the orthotics to represent the changes needed for the feet.
Neil Smith, a certified Pedorthist, invented the Vertical Foot Alignment System, a weight-bearing biomechanical adjustable device that can produce custom Foot Aligners and casts while the patient is standing. This process removes the interpretation, creating a corrected weight-bearing orthotic in real-time. The foot is molded into the foot aligner while standing.
For more information on Neil’s invention, search Google for The Vertical Foot Alignment System VFAS.