Embarking on a journey to optimal foot and ankle health is more than a step in the right direction—it’s a stride towards overall well-being. For Dr. Stephen Schmitz, a distinguished foot and ankle specialist at North Texas Foot & Ankle, it encompasses an inherited commitment to enhancing lives through exceptional medical care.

Dr. Schmitz’s Family Inspiration

Dr. Schmitz’s practice with North Texas Foot & Ankle transcends the conventional, offering a unique blend of advanced medical care and a genuine understanding of the profound impact that healthy feet and ankles can have on one’s quality of life. That understanding was one that was passed down to him from an early age.

“Being from a medical family definitely influenced me,” Dr. Schmitz said. “Seeing how my parents sacrificed and efforts to help others. Seeing images and diagnoses from my dad’s nights on call kind of just made everything click and felt like it was what I was born and raised to do.”

However, he didn’t always find himself on the path to working as a podiatrist. 

“I went into engineering when I started college,” he said. “I grew up liking to build LEGOs and projects with my dad and it evolved into an enjoyment of working with my hands. After a couple years of engineering school, I felt like I wasn’t answering my calling so I took another look at medicine and realized that is where I needed to be. 

“Medicine just clicked for me and due to my enjoyment of working with my hands, a surgical field was an easy decision to make. Today, becoming a podiatrist fulfills my desire to work with my hands, rebuild, fix, and help others clinically and surgically.”

Care & Podiatry Go Hand-in-Hand for Dr. Schmitz

Thanks to his training, he’s able to help all facets of foot & ankle health. Dr. Schmitz sees patients suffering from ingrown toenails to diabetic complicated feed and everything in between. He’s even able to apply his own feet-related troubles to his patients, relating to them in ways they might not expect. That common ground can help them feel more comfortable opening up about their own problems and build a point of connection with their podiatrist. 

“I often discuss with patients good shoes and support for their feet. I am flat-footed and I know the pain of not supporting my feet,” Dr. Schmitz said. “I go over with the patients my own experience of getting inserts and the number of shoes I have tried to best support my own feet day to day to prevent my foot pain from exercising and standing during surgery.”

That personal connection is one of the things that differentiates North Texas Foot & Ankle from other podiatry providers in the area. 

“I like to make my patients feel like they have a friend and a place they can come to without judgment because you never know if one little detail from a conversation can shine a light on the cause of a patient’s pain,” Dr. Schmitz said. “If my patients do not feel like they can talk to me, then I am failing them.”

The Future is Bright for Podiatry

From an industry perspective, Dr. Schmitz is excited to see how his practice and treatments continue to evolve. 

“From the time I started the effort to get into medical school, through medical school, and into residency and practice, there have been complete shifts in ideologies of certain techniques and treatments,” he said. 

From clunky minimally invasive procedures in the late 80s and early 90s to the improved hardware of today, Dr. Schmitz said he’s excited to see how treatments will better serve his patients. 

“Podiatry is ever-evolving, from conference to conference, from article to article,” he said. “I have seen guide jigs and minimally invasive procedures take over and continue to advance. I see these types of devices as extremely promising, as they continue to better the outcomes I have seen in patients during residency and here in practice.”