|
|
Home Treatment Tips for Bunions
Home Remedies for
Decreasing Bunion Pain on Your Own
We have strong feelings about how bunions should best be treated. First,
you should try all conservative treatment before considering surgery.
Surgery should be your last resort. Second, you should see a good
podiatrist for treatment if you have bunions. Although there is a lot
you can do on your own to decrease the pain associated with bunions, to
slow or stop the bunion from getting bigger, you need more sophisticated
treatment. For example, if prescribed correctly,
custom orthotics have
been shown to decrease the forces that cause bunions.
If you cannot see a podiatrist right away, however, here are some bunion
self treatments that you can do on your own to decrease bunion pain.
Most of the items listed below are available at
www.FootAnkleStore.com
and a link is provided to those items.
- Use an arch support in your shoes. This will act to transfer force off
of the area of the bunion. OTC arch supports will not work as well as a
quality custom orthotic, but will help. One that works quite well for
bunion problems is the
Powerstep, available at www.FootAnkleStore.com.
- Instead of slippers, use a sandal with an arch support to wear
around the house. This will act to decrease pressure on your big toe
joint. We recommend the
Wave Flip-flop Sandal – available here.
- Use a pad over the bunion deformity. The pads we have found our patients
like the best is the
Bunion Care Gel Sleeve. A less expensive pad are
the
Silicone Bunion Shields.
- Use a separator between your first and second toes to prevent them from
abutting against each other. The best separators are made of silicone.
Try the
Gel Toe Separator.
- Use a
Bunion Splint at night to keep the big toe straight and prevent
the first toe and second toe from pushing against each other. We have
had some patients tell us that they think these splints helped
straighten their toes even when not wearing the splint – but there is no
proof of that in the literature.
- Ice the bunion for 10 minutes each evening.
- Use a topical pain reliever such as
Orthogel Cold Therapy Relief Gel
during the day
- Find a shoe store with well trained shoe fitters to fit your shoes. If
you are in Washington, California, Iowa, Texas, Florida or Nevada you may find a
SHOES-n-FEET store near you. 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.
- Have your shoes stretched over the bunion deformity.
A home remedy will not get rid of your bunions or prevent them from
getting better. But you can use self treatment to decrease pain. The
items you order from
www.FootAnkleStore.com should arrive in just a
couple of days. For more information on bunions see the following pages:
Bunion Information
Bunion Surgery
Don’t let your bunions or big toe pain get worse. Early treatment can
prevent future problems. Call today for
an appointment in our Seattle office.
All pages on this website © 2005-2009
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.
|
|
|
