# Taking shoes off before entering medical clinic--is this a thing now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668 "2017-05-01T22:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/61 "2017-05-06T19:28:34Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > But then we don’t have the extreme weather that those upthread seem to suffer from. > > I moved to Bristol 4 years ago and haven’t seen\* any\* snow yet. Whatcha talking about? We had a good 1/4 cm on Jan 20th; the news went on about it all week! ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/62 "2017-05-08T00:04:55Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > What about those boots that go over your shoes? I would have thought that, in places where it was snowy all the time, these would be very common. They’re kinda like rainboots, but we call them snow boots. My dad wears them when he wears that full body suit instead of just a coat–when covering up your upper body is not enough for the cold. > > I have to admit, I would least want to take off my shoes in that environment, because I hate getting my socks wet. And if the snow is that bad, it’s gonna be very wet around where the shoes are, so my socked feet are gonna get wet. And in cold weather, too. When I was kid, everyone wore these, galoshes or overshoes, and took them off at the door of houses one visited. When fashion boots came in, people stopped wearing overshoes, and when you visited someone, you brought shoes to wear in the house after you took your boots off at the door. Being careful not to step in the melting snow from other boots at the door, which I often did, and still do, getting wet socks and wet feet. But never in stores or offices, especially not in doctor offices. There were usually enough long hallways with mats designed to absorb water and salt and sand and grit, so that once you got into the office itself, you didn’t make a mess anymore. Of course, then people started wearing hiking boots in the winter, and they are much messier, since they hold more snow. Even in the UP of Michigan, where we got 300 inches of the snow the winter I lived there, did people take off their footwear in public places. Overshoes would make good sense, but people don’t wear them. They are ugly. ---
**Author:** ![CyanBleu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CyanBleu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyanBleu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/63 "2019-04-19T22:57:18Z")
[quote=“Jackmannii, post:16, topic:785668”] The only medical justification for this practice is that the medics paid a lot for the waiting room carpet and don’t want you getting it dirty. I have never run across it in any physician’s or dentist’s office in the USA. Seriously, Canadians don’t believe in doormats? Im my experience, Canadians are just cleaner, and more respectful in general. Most footwear is contaminated with fecal bacteria, aka poop, which gets spread indoors by people who insist on wearing their footwear inside. Doormats only remove loose material. I don’t want my children crawling in poop. Disgusting. > **[The gross reason why you shouldn’t wear shoes in the house](https://www.today.com/home/health-reasons-why-you-shouldn-t-wear-shoes-house-t129820)** > > You'll want to stop wearing shoes inside ASAP. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2019, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/64 "2019-04-20T05:51:39Z")
> [@CyanBleu](#): > > … Most footwear is contaminated with fecal bacteria, aka poop, which gets spread indoors by people who insist on wearing their footwear inside. Doormats only remove loose material. I don’t want my children crawling in poop. Disgusting. > > [Health reasons why you shouldn't wear shoes in the house](https://www.today.com/home/health-reasons-why-you-shouldn-t-wear-shoes-house-t129820) Thing is though that having the inside of the home with some more of those “disgusting” outdoor world fecal contaminants (most specifically farm type fecal stuff) inside of it for your kids to crawl around in would likely make them [healthier](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1508749?query=featured_home) … the Amish have very little asthma and allergy and it seems to be from constant indoor exposure to all that. It is the fecal dust brought in that is the key. > [@](#): > > As compared with the Hutterites, the Amish, who practice traditional farming and are exposed to an environment rich in microbes, showed exceedingly low rates of asthma and distinct immune profiles that suggest profound effects on innate immunity. … \ … in the Amish, intense and presumably sustained exposure to microbes activates innate pathways that shape and calibrate downstream immune responses. … It is literally the kids running in and out out of the house tracking in that fecal matter in their dust that results in the lower asthma and allergy risk. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/65 "2019-04-20T19:31:37Z")
> [@Bayaker](#): > > This seems insane to me. If a customer is going to a doctor’s office where the weather is cold the last thing they want to do is take their shoes off and get cold feet. > > What is the significance of winter & spring? > > Winter in Canada means snow, but how much more water can there be on shoes due to snow rather than a simple rainstorm? A bit more perhaps, but stomping your feet gets rid of most of it, and the dampness remaining is what doormats are for. Even so, I can’t believe any business in snow-prone areas would open before shoveling their sidewalks and parking lots. > > Spring means rain, but again it rains everywhere (and in other seasons), and that doesn’t seem to prompt businesses anywhere else to ask people to remove their shoes because their soles are wet. > > The comments about mud do make some sense, but why would there be mud on sidewalks and parking lots? Where is all this mud coming from? If there is mud they need to hire a competent landscaper. Come up here some January and see for yourself. The bottoms of your boots will be an ugly mixture of snow, dirt and road salt. Anyone coming in to my house had better take them off in the vestibule and some people enforce this all year round (although I don’t). And the floor of my doctor’s office would be filthy if he didn’t ask this all winter. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/66 "2019-04-21T23:20:50Z")
Ontario is not “Canada.” Out here in BC have never seen requests for shoe removal, either in the balmy lower mainland (Vancouver region) or hinterlands, where it snows. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/67 "2019-04-21T23:40:46Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > Ontario is not “Canada.” Out here in BC have never seen requests for shoe removal, either in the balmy lower mainland (Vancouver region) or hinterlands, where it snows. You don’t really get snow in Vancouver. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668/68 "2019-04-22T00:46:38Z")
The three medical clinics I go to all have a “boots off” policy from first snow to final melt (which around here is about half a year). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-shoes-off-before-entering-medical-clinic-is-this-a-thing-now/785668.md?page=3)