It depends, but there’s a more useful answer than that.
For a healthy older adult with no significant foot problems, once or twice a year is a reasonable baseline. That’s enough to catch things early, handle nail and skin maintenance, and check that footwear is still appropriate. Most seniors don’t start at that frequency because nobody told them it was a sensible idea in the first place.
The picture changes considerably with diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association recommends at least one comprehensive foot exam per year for diabetic patients with no complications. For those with neuropathy, poor circulation, or a history of foot ulcers, that becomes every three to six months. The reason is simple: diabetes impairs both sensation and healing. An injury that a healthy adult would notice and treat in a day can become infected and serious in a diabetic patient before anyone realises it’s there.
Caregivers who manage diabetic parents often land on a rhythm of roughly every two months, which happens to align with what Medicare covers. A number of families on eldercare forums describe setting up a regular schedule at the podiatrist as one of the more practical things they did, treating it like a car service interval rather than waiting for something to go wrong. One caregiver put it plainly: once they established the routine, the ongoing problems they had been dealing with simply stopped.
For older adults in assisted living, many facilities have a visiting podiatrist who comes in approximately every 60 days. If your parent is in that situation, it’s worth confirming whether the schedule is actually being kept and whether the quality of care is consistent.
Outside of diabetes, more frequent visits are sensible if your parent has limited mobility and can’t safely check or manage their own feet, has a history of falls, takes blood thinners, has arthritis affecting the feet, or has had recurring infections or ingrown nails.
The practical thing to do is ask the podiatrist at the first appointment to recommend a schedule based on what they find. They will have a clear view of your parent’s risk factors and can set a cadence that makes sense for the actual situation rather than a general guideline. That also removes the decision-making burden from you.
The honest answer is that most families are waiting too long between visits. If your parent has any of the risk factors above and hasn’t seen a podiatrist in over a year, that’s probably the moment to book rather than keep waiting for a convenient time.