What are Hammertoes and How Can I Fix Them?

If you’ve noticed a bend in your toes that won’t go away, you may have hammertoes. This painful condition develops because of imbalances in your muscles, tendons or ligaments.

When working properly, your toe stays straight but when your foot structure, shoe choices, injuries or even illnesses throw your toes off balance, you may notice a crook that remains in place even when your toes relax. When we talk about hammertoes, it means you have an abnormal bend in your toe’s middle joint. If the bend appears in the joint near your toenail, we call that a mallet toe. This condition can occur with any of your toes but is less common in the big toe.

Treating Hammertoes

There are several ways to relieve the pain of hammertoes. At our office, podiatrist Dr. David Sullivan offers surgery-free pain relief for hammertoes.

For individuals whose hammertoes can be at least minorly adjusted by hand, we can significantly reduce your pain with an in-office procedure known as the flexor tenotomy. This is one of our favorite procedures: your results are immediate. You won’t need stitches. We dress the procedure site with a few band-aids, and you will be able to continue on with your day. Best of all, because we don’t send you to the operating room, you don’t have to worry about serious complications and you’ll save thousands of dollars.

Pain Relief for Hammertoes

If you choose the flexor tenotomy to treat hammertoes, we’ll give you local anesthesia. Then, our Westfield, Ind. podiatrist will pierce the skin on the bottom of the toe, beneath the deformed joint and release the tendon that’s keeping the toe contracted. After the procedure is completed, the toe is dressed with a few band-aids and you are able to return to your daily activities.

Your results will be dramatic: the toe that once only touched the ground at its tip will now lay flatter and all that pressure will hit your toe’s fleshy fat pad instead of its bony tip. This will result in reduced pain or no pain. We find this procedure is especially effective if hammertoe pain is worse on the top your toe because it won’t bump against your shoes.

Now, after this procedure, your toe will still look bent when you’re at rest. However, after the flexor tenotomy, the toe will flatten when you stand on it and you’ll experience serious pain relief without surgery.

Ready to end the pain of hammertoes? Reach out to our office and schedule an immediate hammertoe consultation. Together, we’ll decide the best way to treat your feet so you can walk comfortably.