Are your toes hammered?

Do the top of your toes rub and get irritated inside your shoe? Do you have painful calluses on the top or sides of your toes? Do your toes seem to be curling more and more over the years? If that sounds familiar, you may have a condition called hammer toes.

Hammer toes are a common foot condition where the toes become buckled or curling under often causing pain. There are various causes but the most common cause is a muscle imbalance where the long tendons of your foot gain a mechanical advantage over the smaller tendons that stabilize the toe causing the digit to contract.

Initial conservative treatment of hammer toes typically consists of palliative care of painful calluses, padding such as toe spacers or crest pads, inserts, supportive shoes and shoes with an extra depth toe box. When the condition becomes more painful, various surgical procedures may be  performed to straighten the toe to alleviate the symptoms. An initial evaluation will have to be made as there are different treatments based on the severity of your hammer toes. Flexible hammer toes that can be manually straightened without much effort is considered a reducible hammertoe and can typically be treated with tendon releases via small stab incisions in the skin. As a hammer toe becomes more rigid, soft tissue and bone procedures are typically indicated. Patients are typically allowed to walk within a few days in a surgical shoe or a surgical boot called a Cam-walker.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, make an appointment today with Drs. Huynh and Luepschen at the Gentle Foot Care Center for a quick initial evaluation.

Drs. Aden Huynh and Olga Garcia Luepschen along with the Gentle Foot Care Center are located on US 27. For more information visit www.Gentlefootcarecenter.com or call 863-314-9255 for an appointment