Which doctor you should avoid?

In general, avoid doctors who do the following:

• Propose that you stop running as the final solution
• Treat only your symptoms, rather than looking for the cause of your problem
  
• Say they don’t have much experience working with athletes
  
• Don’t look at surgery as a last resort

Of course, most insurance plans are going to require a referral to see a specialist, so you might have to have an initial meeting with someone who acts this way. But once you get to a specialist, make sure that he or she thinks differently. What types of specialists should runners see? That depends on your injury. Foot and lower leg injuries can be treated by orthopedists or osteopaths (I’ll say more about them in a minute), but they’re most often treated by podiatrists. Podiatrists have the initials D.P.M. (doctor of podiatric medicine) following their name. Podiatrists complete four years of training at a college of podiatric medicine and a residency. They are licensed to perform surgery and prescribe medicine.
Podiatrists focus not only on feet, but also on problems elsewhere that are caused by feet. This focus makes them among the runner’s best medical friends, because so many running injuries are caused by faulty feet. A podiatrist can determine whether factors such as overpronation or weak arches are contributing to problems in your biomechanics and setting you up for injury. These types of structural problems in the feet are often treated with orthotics.
Podiatrists are the best professionals to see to determine if you need orthotics, and they’re trained to cast the devices for you. Knee injuries are most often treated by orthopedists, although some knee problems are caused by problems in your feet and can therefore be addressed by podiatrists. Orthopedists are medical doctors (M.D.s) who treat injuries to bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Orthopedists have a reputation for performing surgery, and although a good sports medicine orthopedist will always favor more conservative treatment first, many runners are leery of seeing orthopedists for this reason.
Running injuries above the knee are also often treated by orthopedists. Another good type of doctor to see for these ailments is an osteopath. Like M.D.s, osteopaths (D.O.s) are licensed to practice all branches of medicine, prescribe medication, and perform surgery. In general, they’re trained to view the body more systematically, so they’re likely to look at a runner’s injury from the standpoint of unearthing the root cause rather than just treating the symptoms.
Each of these three specialties has a professional sports medicine organization:

• The American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine (301) 424-7440
  
• The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (708) 292-4900
• The American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (608) 831-4400

I’m not saying that these are the only types of medical professionals that runners can benefit from seeing. Chiropractors (D.C.s), physiatrists (M.D.s trained similarly to osteopaths), physical therapists (P.T.s), and others can also be helpful. But podiatrists, orthopedists, and osteopaths are usually going to be the first ones to see for most common running injuries.