Home treatment hints of ball of foot pain including neuromas, calluses and metatarsalgia
If you cannot see a podiatrist, or you want to try home treatment first, here are our suggestions on self treatment of pain under the ball of the foot. If you do not have 100% relief within 3 weeks of following all of the instructions below, see a podiatrist.
Use an arch support to transfer force off of the
ball of the foot. An arch support that will not collapse will do the
best job. We recommend the
Powerstep Full Length Arch Support.
Use a sandal with an arch support to wear around the
house. This will act to decrease pressure on the ball of your foot.
We highly recommend the
Wave Flip-flop Sandal – available here. Our patients love
this flip flop.
Wearing the correct socks can help reduce bunion pain. Socks help
in two ways. First by reducing friction on the bunion and second by
providing cushion. Cotton is a poor choice for people with bunions
because of high friction. Because it has low friction, no seam over
the bunion and cushions the bunion from shoe pressure, our favorite
sock for bunions is the
Juzo Silver Sole Sock. Available in white
and black.
Use a silicone product to cushion the balls of your feet. Two that work
very well are the
Silipos Metatarsal Gel Strap
and the
Silipos SoftSock.
Both of these devices provide a tremendous amount of cushioning.
For cushioning in women’s dress shoes, where the Gel Strap and SoftSock
would be too big, try using a
Gel Metatarsal Pad.
Ice the painful area of your foot twice per evening for 10 minutes each time
Use a topical pain reliever such as
Orthogel Cold Therapy Relief Gel
during the day.If You Have Calluses
Calluses cause pain under the ball of the foot by increasing pressure.
If you have calluses or dry skin under the ball of your feet, use the
following products in addition to those above:
Hydrostat Cream to soften the calluses
Use a rotary tool such as the
PediNova Electric Nail and Foot Care Kit to thin the callus. This professional quality callus and nail thinning tool allows you to thin your nail with a tool used by podiatrists. Four speeds including 10,000 RPM that allows easy thinning of the nails with no vibration. 10 tools including long-lasting diamond burrs are included For perfectly thin nails, use this tool to grind the nail every week or so. Also good for calluses. Made with incomparable German technology. This is by far the best nail thinning tool we have found. There are less expensive ones available, but they don't have enough power or burr quality to effectively thin the nails.
Gilden Tree Terra Cotta 2-Sided Footscrubber and Callus Remover
Find a shoe store with well trained shoe fitters to fit your
shoes. You can find a list of shoe stores on our
Shoe List. A good
shoe fitter will not only lead you to the best fitting shoes, but
can often modify the shoe to fit difficult to fit feet. If you don’t
have a good shoe store nearby, these
Orthofeet Shoes for Women and
Orthofeet Shoes for Men work great for
ball of foot pain as they have cushion and extra
room in the toe box to fit insoles. Both casual and
athletic shoes are available. Don’t live with pain under the balls of your feet. For the most effective and long-lasting treatment make an appointment to see us in our Seattle office.
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All pages on this website © 2005-2010
Douglas Hale, DPM & Lawrence Huppin, DPM
Foot and Ankle Center of Washington, Seattle
The material provided on this web site is for informative purposes only.
If you need specific medical advice, please contact the office for an appointment.
