Bunions begin innocently enough, but as they progress and the misalignment in your joint worsens and the bony protrusion grows, you can be left in considerable pain.
If you’re struggling with severe bunion pain, there are some steps you can take to find relief. To get started, the team of podiatric experts here at Neuhaus Foot and Ankle presents the following information.
When people with bunions complain of severe pain, it’s often the result of inflammation around the bony protrusion. The inflammation can make wearing shoes nearly impossible, and even a brush with a bedsheet can be agonizing.
If you’re experiencing inflammation in your bunion, ice the area and take over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen. Obviously, you should avoid putting any added pressure on the area, which means wearing shoes that don’t come in contact with the bunion, such as flip-flops (this is one of the few times we recommend flip-flops!).
As the inflammation starts to subside, you can protect your bunion by wearing padding over the area. For example, foot pads designed for corns and calluses can also be placed over your problematic bunion.
If you have bunions and want to prevent painful inflammation, switch your footwear to flat shoes that allow plenty of room for your toes to spread out.
We also recommend that you always try on your shoes before buying them. In doing this, you can determine whether the toe box is wide enough and, as importantly, whether the shoe has anything that might cause bunion pain, such as an ill-placed seam or strap that presses directly on your bunion.
While avoiding shoes altogether and going barefoot around the house might seem like a good idea, it’s not smart. Wearing shoes is essential when you have bunions as the bony protrusion is more vulnerable to trauma when they’re unprotected.
Outside of inflammation, which is an acute event, bunions can lead to nagging pain thanks to the imbalance in your feet. To offset the imbalance and remedy the aching in your feet, we recommend outfitting yourself with custom orthotics.
We design these orthotics specifically for your bunions to help rebalance the joints in your big toe to prevent the bunion from worsening.
Each year in the United States, 350,000 bunion surgeries are performed. Since bunions are irreversible once they form, surgery is often the best option, especially if you’re in severe pain.
We perform different types of bunion surgeries, but in all of them, we realign your metatarsophalangeal joint and remove the excess bone growth at the base of your big toe.
If you’d like to explore ways in which you can prevent or remedy severe bunion pain, contact one of our offices in Hermitage, Brentwood, Nashville, Mount Juliet, Waverly, Smyrna, Gallatin, Columbia, Pulaski, Hendersonville, or Lebanon, Tennessee, to schedule a consultation.
