What causes dry soles of feet?

There are many reasons for dry soles of the feet, such as not paying attention to moisturizing and dry weather, which may cause such a phenomenon. Of course, the most common reason is fungal infection, that is, tinea pedis. At this time, you should go to the dermatology department of the hospital for a fungal endoscope test. If it is indeed caused by fungi, you must receive regular treatment in time. Many patients do not pay attention to the course of treatment, which often leads to recurring athlete's foot.

Treatment misunderstandings cause your athlete's foot to recur

Misconception 1: Stopping medication prematurely. For example, azole topical antifungal drugs need to be applied twice a day, and each application takes more than ten minutes, and the treatment should be continued for 4 to 6 weeks. However, surveys have shown that most patients cannot persist for more than 2 weeks when using topical medications, so it is impossible to be completely cured. Misconception 2: Missing blind spots When applying medication, patients tend to only apply it on lesions with obvious symptoms, while some potentially asymptomatic lesions will be missed. When conditions are ripe, these lesions will relapse. There are also certain types of tinea pedis, such as hyperkeratosis, in which topical medications are difficult to penetrate and effective antibacterial concentrations cannot be reached at the treatment site, so the therapeutic effect will not be ideal.

Misconception 3: Misuse of topical medications . For example, some patients with interdigital erosion type athlete's foot directly use topical medications, which are highly irritating to the local area and can easily cause bacterial infection. There are also a small number of patients who suffer from other diseases such as diabetes and tumors, which lead to decreased immunity and susceptibility to infection, and are not suitable for topical medications. Misconception 4: Once symptoms are relieved, stop taking medication. The fungus that causes athlete's foot is quite stubborn, so antifungal treatment must be reasonable and sufficient. The treatment time requirements for different types of athlete's foot will be different, but there is one principle that is the same, that is, after the symptoms are completely relieved, you should continue to apply the medicine for another week to prevent the recurrence of athlete's foot. Misconception 5: Only focusing on relieving itching without finding the root cause. When athlete's foot strikes, patients often suffer from unbearable itching and wish to change their skin. Therefore, many people buy medicine or use "folk remedies" recommended by others to relieve the itching without thinking twice. It is undeniable that some medicines or folk remedies can indeed temporarily relieve itching. However, behind the temporary relief, these drugs or folk remedies can often aggravate athlete's foot or cause more serious contact dermatitis.

Misconception 6: Only treating athlete's foot and ignoring onychomycosis. Some patients with athlete's foot are likely to suffer from onychomycosis, commonly known as "gray nails". People who suffer from both athlete's foot and onychomycosis often only treat the athlete's foot and ignore the onychomycosis due to certain reasons, such as financial constraints or insufficient knowledge. This kind of "loss of one thing while focusing on another" treatment method is really not advisable. The nails and toenails affected by onychomycosis are equivalent to a "seed bank". Even if the athlete's foot is cured, the onychomycosis "seed bank" will still "re-sow" the fungus on the skin of the feet at any time. Therefore, it is impossible to completely cure the athlete's foot by only treating the onychomycosis without paying attention to the onychomycosis.

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