Consider your feet for a moment and all that they’re tasked with — these relatively small appendages are ground zero for your support and mobility. So, when even the smallest problem develops in your feet, it can throw off the structural balance and lead to pain, which can certainly be the case with bursitis.
At Neuhaus Foot and Ankle, our team of experienced podiatric experts has seen almost every imaginable cause of foot pain, from ingrown toenails to arthritis. One of the many issues is bursitis, and we dive into that problem here.
Many of the joints in your body feature bursae, which are tiny fluid-filled sacs that cushion the connections between your bones and your connective tissues. When it comes to your feet, which contain 33 joints each, bursae are found throughout, but the ones that tend to be more problematic are those found:
By problematic, we’re referring to inflammation of your bursae, which can lead to tenderness, swelling, and pain in these small areas, which can have a considerable impact on your ability to move freely.
Many issues can cause inflammation in your bursae, including:
This last point is one that we’d like to underscore. Your feet are incredibly small and complex and each component needs to, quite literally, do its part to support your weight. If you have a problem like arthritis or you develop a structural issue like bunions or hammertoes, these conditions throw off the balance in your feet, which can lead to added pressure in areas that weren’t designed to carry the extra load.
To illustrate the point further, if you have bunions, the main joint in your big toe is affected, which causes your feet to rely more on your second metatarsal for support. This added pressure can cause the bursae in the balls of your feet under your second toe to become inflamed.
If we find that bursitis is behind your foot pain, our goal is to restore pain-free movement. To do this, we turn to conservative treatments, including:
Our goal with these treatments is to reduce the inflammation and rebalance your feet to take the pressure off your bursae. Custom orthotics are often key to restoring balance in your feet, and we design the orthotics specifically to relieve the pressure on your bursae.
If you’re experiencing foot pain and you suspect it may be bursitis, contact one of our locations in Hermitage, Brentwood, Nashville, Mount Juliet, Waverly, Smyrna, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, or Lebanon, Tennessee, to get on the road to relief.
