For decades, cortisone shots were the gold standard for foot pain. If you had plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis or stubborn joint pain, your doctor would reach for that familiar vial of steroid medication. But that’s changing. So if you’re someone who’s been told you need repeat cortisone shots, or you’ve already had them, this post will change everything you thought you knew about treating chronic foot pain. That’s because, today, we’re introducing DPMx, and it might just make cortisone injections a thing of the past. But first, let’s review the uses of cortisone so we understand what we’re really talking about.
What is Cortisone?
This is a powerful anti-inflammatory medication. Essentially, it’s a synthetic version of a hormone your body naturally produces. When we inject it into damaged tissue it works fast, reducing swelling and calming inflammation. It can provide dramatic pain relief, sometimes within hours. When you’re in severe pain, that rapid relief can feel like a miracle. But here’s what we’ve learned over the years: cortisone treats symptoms, not the actual injury.
Why does that matter? When you have plantar fasciitis, your thick plantar fascia has inflammation and tiny tears that lead to heel pain. Cortisone reduces that inflammation beautifully, but it doesn’t help those tears heal. The underlying damage remains. And repeated injections of cortisone can actually weaken the tissue. In fact, studies show that multiple steroid injections can increase the risk of a plantar fascia rupture. For that reasons, doctors typically limit you to between 2 and 3 injections to one area each year. But each one tends to provide relief for shorter periods of time. And that’s when patients seek another treatment option. In the past, that meant surgery. But now we have a different option: DPMx.
What is DPMX? ![a person holding their foot due to chronic pain]()
DPMx is derived from Wharton’s jelly, which is found in umbilical cord tissue that’s been ethically donated after healthy births. This tissue is incredibly rich in growth factors, cytokines and extra-cellular matrix proteins—all the building blocks your body needs to repair damaged tissue.
DMPx vs Cortisone
Cortisone suppresses your immune system and reduces inflammation. In contrast, DPMx actually supports and enhances your body’s natural healing processes. Instead of addressing the symptoms, DPMx provides your damaged tissue with a complete toolkit for repair. It’s got the growth factor for healing, anti-inflammatory compounds that reduce pain naturally, and structural proteins to help rebuild stronger, fresh tissue.
How DPMx Works Inside Your Body
When you have a chronic condition inside your foot, your body’s natural healing response can stall out because it’s not strong enough to complete the job. That’s where DMPx comes in to play: it works through cellular communication, signaling to your damaged tissue that it’s time to begin repair. It encourages the formation of new blood vessels to bring nutrients to the area, supporting the production of collagen.
Unlike cortisone, that stops the inflammatory process entirely, DPMx modulates things. It reduces the harmful inflammatory pathways while preserving the beneficial ones that are necessary for healing. The result? Instead of temporary symptom relief, you get actual tissue regeneration. Instead of weakening the tissue, you make it stronger. And instead of diminishing returns on treatment, you can build on earlier progress.
Conditions We Can Treat
With this compound, we can address several chronic foot and ankle conditions.
With DMPx, we can relieve:
- Plantar fasciitis, especially chronic cases that haven’t responded to conventional treatments.
- Achilles tendinitis, particularly when there are degenerative changes in the tendon.
- Capsulitis and forefoot pain, even when the small joints and ligaments are inflamed.
- Arthritis—though it can’t reverse damage, this substance can help slow progression and reduce discomfort significantly.
What to Expect with DMPx Treatment
The procedure itself is very similar to getting a cortisone injection. It’s done right here in our Houston podiatry practice. Taking less than 20 minutes, Dr. Andrew Schneider will often use ultrasound guidance to ensure precise placement of the substance.
Now, we want you to understand: with cortisone, many patients experience pain relief within hours of their injection. With DPMx, you need to be patient. It’s a form of regenerative medicine; because it’s actually healing tissue, it takes time for you to experience results. Most patients start experiencing that relief four to six weeks after treatment, with improvement continuing over the following months.
There is some variability in the course of your recovery. Some patients see benefits as early as two weeks; others might need eight to ten weeks before things get better. But when the improvement comes, it tends to be more lasting than what you’d get with a cortisone shot, because we’ve addressed the underlying problem.
PRP vs DPMx
If the treatment process above sounds familiar, you’re not wrong: these two regenerative medicine treatments do share some common factors. But Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) uses your own blood: we draw it, concentrate the platelets and growth factors inside, and inject them back into your damaged tissue. This is an excellent treatment option, and we use it regularly.
But DPMx has some unique advantages. First, it doesn’t require drawing your blood, so it’s perfect for patients on blood thinners who can’t safely undergo PRP treatment. Second, it contains a much richer variety of healing factors—not just growth factors, but also the extracellular matrix and structural proteins that provide scaffolding needed for tissue repair.
Who Should Choose This Option
Due to its unique advantages, we often recommend this treatment option for patients with more advanced tissue regeneration; diabetic patients whose own healing factors might not be as robust; or to patients who may not have responded to PRP. It’s also a great choice for those who are tired of riding the cortisone rollercoaster.
Remember: cortisone is like taking a powerful painkiller for a broken bone. But DPMx is like setting the bone in the hospital so that it can actually heal properly. Are you ready to find lasting pain relief without surgery? Regenerative medicine could be the answer you’ve been looking for. Contact our office and request a consultation. When you come in for your visit, we can determine if PRP, DPMx or another treatment option will help you break up with cortisone injections once and for all!
