Dear Sandman, you should not feel guilty for asking questions, if you don't know the answer to something, you need to ask, simple as that.
So I'm going to give a somewhat broader statement here and then answer you as concisely as possible.
When you come across something that in your studies said contra indicated, while you were studying the correct course for you was to avoid it.
Now you are qualified the correct course is to find out why it's contra indicated and see if there is a way for you to safely adapt your service.
So you have a diabetic client come to you for a manicure.
Put the condition to one side for a moment and look at the client. What is their age group? What is there skin like, how do their nails look.
These are the bones of the service you will give.
Once you have that out of the way you then need to know certain things from them.
You explain to your client that in the event of an accident in the work place you need to know things to tell an ambulance crew. Anyone can trip and bang their head
So are they type 1 or 2 diabetic. Type 1. The body can not process sugar at all and the condition is controlled by injection (this is a broad answer, so please don't anyone jump down my neck here) Type 2, the body is not very good with processing sugar and the client helps with, sometimes diet alone, sometimes with diet and tablets.
It's helpful if you can write on the client card who their doctor is, what type of medication they take and how often.
Then you want to know what their blood sugar reading is. A none diabetic in good health will have a reading of 5 or very close to that.
A controlled diabetic will have a reading of somewhere between 4 and 9.
Ask them, have they any loss of sensitivity in their hands or feet. They will know, every time they see the diabetic nurse for a review they have a sensitivity test. Make a note of it.
This is where you will be making your adjustments. For example, when I give my husband a pedicure, I am very careful to test the water temp for his foot bath, this is because he has a slight loss of sensitivity in one foot and in his hands, so asking him if the temp is ok, is a waste of time.
Using a cuticle pusher or nippers is the same as for anyone else, you examine the skin and provided its normal in appearance, carry on.
Ex foliation scrubs etc have more to do with skin type then anything else.
If your client is elderly and has thin paper like skin I wouldn't use a scrub, if they happen to be diabetic or not.
Pedicures. This is where
we are so very helpful. We will see the bottom of the feet. We can see if there are cuts or anything unusual and we should not keep quiet about them. We know what a normal foot looks like and we should be willing to write a note to be passed along to a doctor saying what we have seen. Don't diagnose for goodness sake (doctors hate that) but state what we have seen and ask the doctor to have a look and tell
us if this is ok. We are trained to cut nails correctly. We will spot an in growing toe nail. An infected hang nail, bacterial infection. That is where we are the professionals. If you are ever faced with a diabetic who can not tell you what their blood sugar level is, or says it's more then 10. I would tell them that until their blood sugar is under control I would not be able to treat them.
Again this is not because I think I'm going to harm them with a treatment, it's because I would worry that my insurance would not cover me
and because I'm encouraging a diabetic to take better care of them selves.
So all my ranting aside. I hope this answer has helped and I strongly suggest you talk to the diabetic nurse at your own doctors practice. If you ring and explain to reception that you want a greater understanding so as to carry out treatments so could you have a call back when ever the nurse isn't busy. You should get a happy nurse feeding you info as quick as you can take it in.
Diabetic uk has a wealth of information, all written in easy to follow language and style. It's aimed at new diabetics who are trying to understand what's happening to them.
Lastly if you don't do pedicures, you should, good money to be made and there are some really good extra courses you can take which will allow you to become a tech who offers more then the average.
HTH xx