Skin problems
Cracked heels
Heels crack when hard dry skin around the rim loses its give and splits under your body weight. Cream on its own rarely fixes it — the thickened edge has to come down first, and then the cream keeps it closed.
Treatment Summary
How long
30 minutes
What it costs
£35
No new patient fee.
Getting in
Free parking at the Tesco next door, under a minute's walk.
What we do
Does it hurt
Reducing the hard skin does not hurt. An open crack can be tender, so we work gently around it, dress it if it needs it, and stop whenever you ask.
A short line in a patient's own words goes here, once we have a real one to use.
Placeholder — name and town go here.
How to tell a crack from ordinary dry skin.
Dry heels are uncomfortable. A cracked heel is a break in the skin, which is a different matter — it lets bacteria in, it bleeds, and it gets deeper while the thickened rim around it is left alone.
Dry, flaky skin building up around the heel — at Complete Chiropody and Podiatry in Chester-le-Street
A band of hard skin on the heel starting to split — at Complete Chiropody and Podiatry in Chester-le-Street
Deep cracks through thick, hard heel skin — at Complete Chiropody and Podiatry in Chester-le-Street
Treatment Information
What we do about it.
01
We reduce the rim
The thickened skin around the outside of the heel is what pulls a crack open every time you stand on it. Taking that down is the part that lets the split close, and it is painless.
02
We clean up the crack itself
Any loose or dead edge is tidied so that the crack closes cleanly rather than sealing over the top of dirt. If it is deep or weeping we dress it and see you again to check on it.
03
We sort out the cream
A plain cream is not enough for a heel like this. Something containing urea is what softens thickened skin, and it needs to go on daily — on the heel and the sole, and never between the toes.
04
We look at why it happened
Open-backed shoes, standing on hard floors all day, and simply dry skin are the usual three. Carrying extra weight and having diabetes both make it more likely and more important to deal with. We tell you which of those we think applies to you.
What you can do at home
Get it looked at sooner if…
Any of these change what we do and how quickly we do it. Ring us rather than waiting for a routine appointment.
Online booking opens soon
Our appointment diary is not open just yet. Leave your details and be the first to know when it opens, so you can pick a time that suits you, evenings and weekends included.
Diary opening soonOr ring 07838 652554 and we will find you a time.
Rather talk to someone?
Ring during opening hours and you will speak to a person. Home visits are arranged this way.
Heel fissures develop where hyperkeratosis around the rim of the heel loses elasticity and splits under vertical loading and lateral expansion of the heel fat pad. Debridement of the callused margin is the key intervention — emollients alone rarely resolve an established fissure, because thickened tissue does not rehydrate from the surface. Urea preparations at ten to twenty five per cent are keratolytic as well as hydrating and outperform a simple emollient. Deep fissures are cleaned and dressed, sometimes with a skin adhesive or a hydrocolloid to hold the edges together. Contributing factors include open-backed footwear, prolonged standing, obesity, hypothyroidism, psoriasis and diabetes. In a person with diabetes or peripheral arterial disease a heel fissure is a break in the skin barrier and is treated as a wound rather than a cosmetic problem.
Questions
Things people ask about cracked heels.
Because the thickened rim will not soften from the outside. Take that down first and the cream then does exactly what it is supposed to. That order is the whole trick.
Gently, on damp skin, if you have good circulation and normal feeling in your feet. Coarse graters take too much off and the skin builds back thicker. If you have diabetes, leave your heels to us.
A shallow crack usually closes within a couple of weeks of the rim coming down and daily cream going on. A deep one takes longer and may need dressing in between.
It will if the skin dries out again, which is why the cream is a permanent routine rather than a course of treatment. Most people are then seen every couple of months to keep the rim down.
For most people it is painful rather than dangerous. If you have diabetes or poor circulation it is a break in the skin, and it needs treating as one, promptly.
Still have a question?
Ask it here and we will come back to you by email, usually the same working day. If it is urgent, calling is quicker.
Online booking opens soon
Our appointment diary is not open just yet. Leave your details and be the first to know when it opens, so you can pick a time that suits you, evenings and weekends included.
Diary opening soonOr ring 07838 652554 and we will find you a time.
Rather talk to someone?
Ring during opening hours and you will speak to a person. Home visits are arranged this way.
Cracked heels
treatment in Chester-le-Street
Our clinic is in Chester-le-Street, right next to Tesco, so parking is free and it is less than a minute's walk from the car park to our door. We also see people from the towns and villages around it, and visit at home across the same area.