Hammertoe and Chiropractic Treatment
A hammer toe is usually caused by wearing shoes with high heels or narrow toe boxes. It often affects the toe next to the big toe. The affected toe may be painful or hard to move, and may develop corns or calluses. It can be very painful when walking or exercising and create worse problems for your feet if not treated. Chiropractic care works to help straighten out the feet and toes through gentle adjustments to help alleviate the pain that hammertoe causes. For over 4 decades Blakely Chiropractic has helped individuals with foot issues, helping to relieve the affects of hammertoe.
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Most times the condition can be traced to ill-fitting shoes.
How Does Hammertoe Start?
Foot and toes are made up of several bones. Each one of the smaller toes starts with a metatarsal bone within the forefoot. These bones move down the foot from the metatarsal bone to 3 smaller bones, called the phalanges. The first of these small bones is called the proximal phalanx, then comes the middle phalanx and the list is the distal phalanx.
In a hammertoe condition, the first joint (MTP), is cocked upward and the middle joint is bent downward. A claw toe deformity has a cocked up MTP joint and both the middle joint and the small joint at the end of the toe are curled downward like a claw.
What can be done for the problem?
Treatment for hammertoe at Blakely Chiropractic can be very helpful if the deformity of the foot is not too advanced and the muscle tissues in the foot are still flexible.
Dr. Blakely will examine your foot and determine how flexible your toes are and how far advanced the deformity is. Regardless of how far advanced, Dr. Blakely will discuss with you the proper footwear needed. You should wear shoes that are the proper size for you (long enough to allow the longer toes to have room), have wide toe boxes, and that have soft insoles in order to avoid pressure on the toes. You may also need to look for shoes that have more depth in the toe box such that the top of your shoe does not press into the top of your toe. For women it is advisable to avoid wearing high heels as much as possible as this adds to the pressure on the toes. Wearing proper shoes is the single most important action required to avoid the advancement of hammer or claw toes while they are still flexible.
If your toes are still flexible and can be straightened out from their claw or hammer toe position then your therapist may mobilize your toe joints to provide a stretch to the tightened tissues and to encourage the joints to move through their normal motions. Your therapist will also show you how to mobilize your own toes, and will prescribe some toe, foot, and calf stretches to encourage your toes to return back into their normal position.
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