If you have a bunion on your big toe, you have a progressive bone disorder that a podiatrist should correct. Bunions appear on the lower side of the big toe joint. If these bony bumps aren't treated at the right time, they can hinder proper walking in a big way. The bony bumps can be red and tender, and they can cause unusual pain due to their unusual shape. Besides being unsightly, bunions could cause impaired balance, hardened skin, restricted motion and altered gait. However, bunions can be treated using any of the following ways:
Bunion Exercises
Most podiatrists advise people with bunions to exercise their ankles and feet to prevent the muscle imbalance that occurs around the joint. Feet joints with muscle imbalance cause bunions, but you can control the problem through feet therapy. If you want to maintain proper joint alignment, do muscle-strengthening activities. Exercises keep the feet joints strong and supple, especially when range-of-motion is maintained. Some of the feet exercises you need to treat bunions include heel raises and toe curls.
Surgery
Although some bunions don't show symptoms, they get worse with time. When the bunions get sore, you can't find fitting shoes. If other treatments don't ease your painful bunions, a podiatrist may recommend bunion surgery. If you usually smoke, you may have to stop it for a while to prepare for surgery. If you don't stop smoking, you may get wound infections after surgery, and this may slow down recovery.
Bunion surgery may take less than 60 minutes or even more, depending on the bunion condition. Your overall health and bunion size may determine whether the podiatrist would carry out metatarsal osteotomy, arthrodesis or resection arthroplasty. The foot doctor may remove the bunion using a deeper cut on your big toe or perform keyhole surgery where they use small cuts to reach the bunion.
Prescribed Drugs
If your bunions are painful, a podiatrist may inject pain drugs or give oral ones to reduce inflammation and relieve pain. Naproxen and ibuprofen are some of the non-steroidal drugs people with red, swollen and painful bunions take to fight pain. Where oral pain relievers won't work, corticosteroid medication could be injected. Injected medications relieve bunion pain faster than oral drugs.
If the bunion isn't treated early, your feet may develop a structural problem you can't correct later. Bunions could be due to an inherent foot-bone problem, and the symptoms may appear during adulthood. If you wear shoes that crowd the toes, change them since they increase bunion risk, even though they don't directly cause bunions. A podiatrist can check the bunions at a podiatry clinic to know the best treatment to apply.
Share13 March 2020
Having a fungal infection on your feet can be really annoying. You may find that your feet feel itchy, uncomfortable and that they don't smell great. The aim of this blog is to provide you with all of the info you need to fight a fungal infection. We are not trained podiatrist, but we have dedicated many hours to learning all we can about this subject. We will also be posting info about other conditions which can affect your feet and we hope to highlight how a podiatrist can help you to tackle them. Thank you for stopping by to read our blog!