Premier Foot & Ankle Center - Hannah Lee DPM

Premier Foot & Ankle Center - Hannah Lee DPM At Premier Foot & Ankle Center, we provide expert care for a variety of podiatric foot and ankle conditions.

Dr. Hannah Lee is an experienced podiatrist who uses the latest treatments and techniques to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients. Premier Foot & Ankle Center in San Mateo is led by Hannah Lee, DPM, a board-certified foot and ankle surgeon and sports medicine specialist. We diagnose and treat heel and arch pain, plantar fasciitis, bunions, flatfoot, tendon injuries, ingrown and funga

l nails, and diabetic foot concerns. Services include custom orthotics, gait/pressure analysis, minimally invasive procedures, and comprehensive surgical care—focused on restoring mobility so you can stay active and pain-free.

🦶 "Shockwave therapy." You have probably seen the term. Here is what it actually means for heel pain.It is not the shock...
09/08/2026

🦶 "Shockwave therapy." You have probably seen the term. Here is what it actually means for heel pain.

It is not the shockwave used on kidney stones. It is not an injection or surgery. No needle, no anesthesia, no downtime. A handheld device sends rapid mechanical pulses into the sore spot on your heel for about five minutes.

The usual explanation is that it "creates a tiny injury to restart healing." That is not quite right, and the real version is better: your cells can feel mechanical force and turn it into a chemical repair signal. The pulse is physics. What your body does with it is biology.

Straight talk on results: across 11 trials and more than 1,000 patients, the average pain drop was about 3 points out of 10. Real and meaningful, and an average, so some people do much better and some do not respond at all.

It suits heel pain that has hung around for months after stretching and better shoes have not worked. Heel pain that has outlasted the simple fixes? Let's figure out what is actually going on. 👇

🦶 Fall sports are back. If your child is limping after practice or walking on their toes in the morning, here is somethi...
08/24/2026

🦶 Fall sports are back. If your child is limping after practice or walking on their toes in the morning, here is something every parent of a young athlete should know.

It is probably Sever's disease, the most common cause of heel pain in active kids aged 8 to 14. The name sounds alarming. The condition is actually benign and temporary, and it is one of the most reassuring diagnoses we make in pediatric podiatry.

Here is what is happening: during a growth spurt, your child's leg bones grow faster than the Achilles tendon. The tight tendon then pulls on the soft growth plate at the back of the heel every time they run or jump, until it gets inflamed and sore.

Watch for:
👟 Heel pain worse during and after sport, better with rest
🌙 Limping or toe-walking, especially in the morning
🤏 Pain when you gently squeeze the back of the heel

Two things parents often get wrong: dismissing it as "just growing pains" (those are actually nighttime leg-muscle aches, not heel pain), or panicking that it is something serious. A quick visit sorts it out, usually with no X-rays needed.

The best news: most kids are back to full sport in about two months with simple care, stretching, a cushioned heel cup, and easing off the hardest running for a bit. The earlier you start, the faster they recover.

We just published a full parent guide on our blog, including how to tell Sever's disease apart from growing pains. If you have a limping young athlete at home, give it a read. 👇

🏃 San Mateo runners, this one is for you.We are lucky to have such different running routes close to home, but here is t...
08/10/2026

🏃 San Mateo runners, this one is for you.

We are lucky to have such different running routes close to home, but here is the thing: they need different shoes, and using one pair for everything is the most common running-injury mistake I see in the clinic.

The surprising part: the flat, easy paved routes (Bay Trail, Coyote Point) are often the hardest on your feet. Dead-flat pavement has zero give, so all that impact bounces right back into your feet and shins, which is where plantar fasciitis and shin splints come from. That is the run for maximum cushioning.

The rolling paved reservoir trails (Sawyer Camp, Crystal Springs) add downhills that jam your toes, so cushioned shoes plus heel-lock lacing save your toenails. And the dirt at Edgewood needs a grippy trail shoe to prevent rolled ankles and stone bruises.

One more: running shoes wear out from the inside around 300 to 500 miles, long before they look worn. A new ache on your usual route often means it is time for new shoes.

Check out the visual guide to match the shoe to your route. Which of these local routes do you run most? 👇

🏃 Fall sports are starting, and so is the August spike.Every August we see a wave of healthy young athletes come in with...
07/28/2026

🏃 Fall sports are starting, and so is the August spike.

Every August we see a wave of healthy young athletes come in with shin or foot pain that appeared a couple of weeks into preseason, with no injury behind it. Here is why: over a quiet summer, your child's bones and tendons lose some conditioning. Then preseason hits and the training load jumps overnight, often to two practices a day. The body cannot adapt that fast, and the shins and feet start to break down into shin splints, stress fractures, Achilles strain, and heel pain.

The key thing to know: normal soreness is a general ache in both legs that eases as they warm up. An overuse injury is sharp, in one spot, often on one side, and shows up earlier in each practice. That second one means stop and get it checked.

How to help:
✅ Build a base with easy running before camp starts
✅ Ramp up gradually, do not jump straight into full load
✅ Do not play through sharp or one-sided lower-leg pain

Caught early, these are usually a quick fix. Played through, they can become a stress fracture and a lost season. If your athlete is limping after early practices, give us a read of our full guide on the blog. 👇

🦶 Has your "plantar fasciitis" not gotten better despite months of treatment? It might not be plantar fasciitis at all.W...
07/12/2026

🦶 Has your "plantar fasciitis" not gotten better despite months of treatment? It might not be plantar fasciitis at all.

We see this in our clinic almost weekly: patients who have been treated for plantar fasciitis for months but who actually have a condition called Adult Acquired Flatfoot Deformity (AAFD). The arch of the foot is slowly collapsing because a tendon on the inside of the ankle is weakening.

The clues:
👉 Pain is on the INSIDE of your ankle and arch, not just your heel
👉 Pain is WORST at the end of the day, not first thing in the morning
👉 Your shoes are starting to feel tilted or wearing unevenly
👉 Someone has mentioned one of your feet looks flatter than the other

The diagnosis requires a specific physical exam (the single-leg heel raise test and the "too many toes" sign) that most patients never receive in routine evaluation. Without that exam, AAFD is easy to miss and get mistaken for plantar fasciitis.

If any of this sounds familiar, please don't keep getting treated for the wrong condition. Catching this early changes everything.

07/04/2026

Wishing you all a happy, safe, and spectacular 4th of July filled with fireworks, fun, and family! 🎉🎆 From all of us at Premier Foot & Ankle Center.

🏃 Have you bought carbon-plate racing shoes for a marathon or half-marathon? Read this before your race day.The original...
07/01/2026

🏃 Have you bought carbon-plate racing shoes for a marathon or half-marathon? Read this before your race day.

The original Nike Vaporfly hit the market in 2017. Within a decade, carbon-plate "super shoes" became the mainstream choice for racing at every level, from elite athletes to recreational marathoners. The performance gain is real and well-documented: most studies show a 2 to 4 percent improvement in running economy.

But there is a bone-adaptation cost that comes with the performance gain, and clinics are now seeing it walk in the door. The rigid carbon plate inside the shoe redistributes force through your foot in a pattern your bones have not been remodeled to handle. The midfoot bones (especially the navicular, a small wedge-shaped bone deep in your arch) bear new loads. Without time to adapt, microtrauma accumulates. Eventually you feel vague deep midfoot pain. By the time it shows up on MRI, you may be looking at a 4-month recovery.

The pattern we see: someone buys carbon plates 6 to 12 weeks before a target race, races in them, feels great, then a week or two later the pain starts.

The fix is gradual adoption. Don't race in carbon plates until you've trained in them for a full training cycle. If you feel deep midfoot pain, don't run through it.

🩴 Your favorite summer shoe might be the reason your feet hurt.Every summer we see a wave of patients with heel and arch...
06/29/2026

🩴 Your favorite summer shoe might be the reason your feet hurt.

Every summer we see a wave of patients with heel and arch pain that crept up with no injury behind it. The usual culprit? A summer of living in flip-flops.

Here is what most people do not realize: a flip-flop is held on by nothing but a thin toe thong. To keep it from flying off, your foot grips it with your toes on every step, all day. Add no arch support and a thin sole, and the band of tissue along the bottom of your foot gets overloaded. A few weeks later, your heels and arches ache and you cannot think of a single thing you did to hurt them.

The fix is simple:
✅ Save flip-flops for the pool and beach, not all-day wear
✅ For walking, pick a sandal with arch support, a secure strap, and a cushioned sole
✅ If your feet already hurt, get it checked early, plantar fascia pain is much easier to treat before it becomes chronic

We just published a full guide on our blog, including how to pick a summer sandal that will not wear your feet out. If your feet ache by August, this one is for you. 👇

⚽ Playing soccer this World Cup summer? Here is an injury that sounds minor but can cost you a whole season.It is called...
06/22/2026

⚽ Playing soccer this World Cup summer? Here is an injury that sounds minor but can cost you a whole season.
It is called turf toe, and the name does it no favors. It sounds like a blister. It is actually a sprain of the main joint at the base of your big toe, the joint that takes your full body weight every time you sprint, plant, or kick. When the big toe gets jammed upward while your foot is planted, the soft tissue under that joint stretches or tears.
There are three grades:
👟 Grade 1 (a stretch): back to play in 3 to 5 days
👟 Grade 2 (a partial tear): 2 to 4 weeks
👟 Grade 3 (a complete tear): 4 to 6 weeks or more
The dangerous part: a grade 2 can feel like a grade 1 on the first day. The swelling and bruising that reveal the worse injury show up a day or two later. So people ice it, feel fine, play again, and turn a few-week injury into a months-long one.
If you jam your big toe and it swells: respect the swelling, do not play through it on a hunch, and get it graded. Managed early and correctly, most turf toe heals well without surgery.
We just published a full guide on our blog, including how to tell the grades apart. If you have a swollen, painful big toe after a hard plant, give it a read before your next match. 👇

🦶 A patient came in this spring describing a pebble in her shoe that wasn't there.She'd been taking her shoes off to sha...
06/15/2026

🦶 A patient came in this spring describing a pebble in her shoe that wasn't there.

She'd been taking her shoes off to shake out the phantom stone for eight months. The diagnosis took five minutes: Morton's neuroma, a pinched nerve in the front of her foot.

This is one of the most commonly missed foot problems in adults. The signature symptom is exactly what she described: a marble or pebble sensation under the ball of your foot, often between the third and fourth toes. Burning, tingling, or electric shocks can also appear.

The cause is a nerve in the front of the foot that gets repeatedly pinched by narrow shoes, dancing, running, or long hours standing. The diagnosis requires a specific 30-second exam (the Mulder click test) that most patients never receive.

Address

101 S San Mateo Drive STE 302
San Mateo, CA
94401

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+16504840700

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