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Best Ways to Treat and Prevent Hammertoe
Health
2 years ago

If the joints on one of your toes — usually the toe next to the big toe or the smallest toe — point upwards rather than lying flat, then you might have a hammertoe.

The condition is damage that occurred when one of the toe muscles became weak and put pressure on the toe’s tendons and joints. This pressure forced the toe to become disfigure and stick up at the joint.

Also, there is often a corn or callus on top of the injured toe. This outgrowth can lead to pain when it rubs against the shoe. The term, hammertoe, is commonly used as a general classification for any state where the toe muscles weaken, leading to digital contracture, and resulting in deformity. A digital contracture like this can be a hammertoe, claw toe or mallet toe, relying on which joints in the toe are contracted.

Claw toes are bent at the middle and end joints, while hammertoes are bent at the middle joint only. When it is mallet toe, the joint at the end of the toe buckles. The skin near the toenail tip develops a tender corn that can finally result in ulcers. Doctors further classify all forms of hammertoe based on whether the injured toe is semi-rigid, rigid or flexible. The more robust the toe, the more pain it will cause.

How Does It Occur?

Your shoes, your genetic pre-disposition, an underlying medical state or all of these can make you prone to developing one of this impairment of the toes.

  • The Genes Your Parents Gave You: According to studies when it comes to genetics, the foot type you are born with predisposes you to grow this kind of joint damage over a lifetime. For several, a flat flexible foot causes hammertoes as the foot tries to decline against flat arches. Those with high arches can form hammertoes as the other part of the body overpowers the flexor.
  • Those Fashionable Shoes: Women tend to pack their feet into too-narrow, ill-fitting shoes with little to no arch to help. That is why we see more hammertoes in women than men. Pointy, high-heeled shoes put critical pressure on the toes and their joints, and they typically have little to no arches supports.
  • Other Ailments: Neuromuscular illness can contribute to the growth of hammertoe, too. People with diabetes can be at higher risk for complications from a hammertoe. In diabetics, if a toe has corn or other ulceration, it shows there is too much pressure on the toes. Moreover, those with the poor flow of blood or neuropathy, these lesions can get infected and causes loss of a toe or foot unless shoes are modified.

Prevention and Treatment Tips for Hammertoes

Hammertoe Repair Surgery is the best way to fix a hammertoe permanently. The simple method straightens the toe, which makes the shoes fit better. Moreover, your foot will look more attractive, as well. However, there are other fixes besides surgery. This include:

  • Wear Sensible Shoes: If you do not want to have surgery to fix your hammertoes, use non-medicated padding along with the proper shoes made with a wider and deeper toe box to fit your foot’s shape. Ensuring your shoes have a good arches support can slow the progression of the state.
  • Use a Pumice Stone: The corn or callus that forms on top of the hammertoe correction can lead to irritation when you wear shoes. Treat the corn by using a file or pumice stone to lower its size after a warm bath and then apply emollients to keep the portion softened and pliable. Also, recommended using silicone or moleskin padding on top of the portion when wearing shoes.
  • Do Foot Exercises: Perform exercises for the toes to keep them supple and strengthen the muscles that moves them. Moreover, exercises, like extending, then curling the toes, splaying the toes, and moving the toes individually, may help stop the digital contracture that leads to hammertoes.

Try these advices and see which works best for you.

Cost of Hammertoe Surgery

India leads on top by being the best platform for medical and healthcare services. Affordable hammertoe treatments and surgery packages are available at a very low-cost when compared to the developed countries. Surgeries are performed by well-trained and highly experienced doctors of India who have practiced from abroad. Hammertoe repair surgery cost in India is available at a very reasonable rate. The cost-effective packages of treatments in India are the sole reason why patients from abroad keep visiting India frequently.