Bunions: Two Options for Bent Toe Joints

You may have seen pictures of Iman, Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Aniston and other celebrities sporting stylish, high-heeled sandals—and a large, not-so-stylish bump at the sides of their feet by the big toes. You’ve probably also seen friends and family members with the same problem. That’s not surprising, since about 90% of bunions occur on women’s feet, and they tend to run in families.

If this toe deformity is beginning to develop on your foot, we recommend that you make an appointment to come and see us soon. The quicker you catch the problem the better chance you have that conservative treatment for bunions will help keep them from getting worse.

There are basically two things to do for a bunion:

• relieve the symptoms and keep it from getting worse, or
• fix it with a surgical procedure

The first is attempted in several ways. You can change to wider shoe styles that won’t irritate the bump. You can try icing and medications to relieve pain and swelling. We can design custom orthotics that may help rebalance stress on the bones and keep them from moving further out of alignment. These may or may not help, however.

Bunions are progressive—they will keep getting worse if they are not corrected. That means eventually the swelling, stiffness, and discomfort in the joint may increase until it inhibits your activities. Then the deformity will require bunion surgery to realign the bones, rebalance the tendons and ligaments, and relieve your pain.

If you have already reached that point—don’t wait. We use state of the art surgical techniques and many of our patients are surprised at the low level of discomfort they experience from the procedure and recovery. After a few weeks of recovery and some exercises to restore full movement to the joint, your feet should look and feel a lot better.

Call Far West Podiatric Medical Group and let our caring staff walk you through the process—from initial exam to surgery to full recovery. We welcome patients from the El Segundo, Redondo Beach and Lawndale areas to our office in Hawthorne, CA. Just call (310) 675-0900 to set up your appointment and start on the path to living the life you want without bunion pain.