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Podiatry is very specialized by dulac89

A podiatrist is trained in medical and surgical management of the feet and lower leg.

An orthopedic foot and ankle specialist (an MD/DO) was trained as a general MD then as a general orthopedist, with a fellowship in foot and ankle. Certainly a much more comprehensive training.

Most orthopedic foot and ankle doctors have some ability to practice general orthopedics. As an example, our foot and ankle specialist takes general ortho call, and can manage many other routine/simple orthopedic problems.

Podiatry school is easier to get into. Some students go into podiatry because they couldn't get into med school. Some know right away what they want to do, and rather than spend 4 years of med school, 5 years of residency, and 1-2 years of fellowship, go straight to podiatry school cutting out years of training.

I have no problem referring patients with foot problems to podiatrists. For complicated foot and ankle surgical issues, as a generality, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon is going to be a better option, but there are certainly outstanding podiatrists out there too that I would completely trust with my own foot and ankle. I guess the best way to describe it is at the top levels, podiatry and ortho foot/ankle are equivalent for foot/ankle problems, but the quality floor is lower with podiatrists.