There are many types of fungi which can grow on your skin and your feet provide the ideal growing medium for them (being shut away in a dark, warm shoe most of the time). When you come to the practice we need to find out what sort of fungus has invaded your foot, to do this we take a piece of the infected skin or nail and send it off to a pathology lab. It usually takes 3 weeks to receive the result. Once we know which fungus we are dealing with we know what will kill it. In the meantime we will usually give you a simple antifungal preparation to use. We will also advise you on how to treat your shoes and socks as the fungus usually invades these too.

Sometimes bacteria can invade your skin giving it a pitted appearance.

Fungus prefers a moist skin or skin which is excessively dry.