So you have painful and annoying corns? Or maybe they don’t hurt but look unsightly. Simply using the corn removers at your local drugstore will not solve your problem. Most of the corn removers are medicated and contain salicylic acid, which has the potential to create sores, blisters or ulcers and ultimately a bacterial infection. Therefore, corn removers can actually make your problem worse or lead to new problems. In my opinion, these corn removers should be pulled off the market.
Corns are a Build Up of Dead Skin
Corns (and calluses) are basically a build-up of dead skin in an area of the foot subjected to increased pressure from a foot deformity such as a bunion or hammertoe or a bone that is abnormally positioned. Corns are located on the toes and are caused by hammertoes rubbing against shoes. If something keeps rubbing against a surface, that surface will eventually breakdown or wear away. So the body protects itself from skin breakdown by building up new and dead skin – corns on the toes and calluses on the bottom of the foot.
So those fashionable pointy closed-toed shoes will really hurt and make the corns bigger! They will feel better in an open-toed shoe where nothing is touching the area but of course then you will have to show-off those embarrassing hammertoe contractures and corns.
Removing a Corn
The only way to truly remove a corn permanently so it will not return again is to have surgical straightening of the toe by your local podiatric surgeon. Short of surgery, treatments consists of accommodating the deformity with wide shoes, padding and having your podiatric surgeon shave the corn/dead skin down with a procedure called debridement on a periodic basis.
These conservative treatments will not get rid of the corns – rather it will just make the condition more tolerable and manage it for you. The corns will always be an issue with conservative treatment. So if you are healthy enough and tired of those annoyingly painful and ugly toes, you should visit your local podiatric surgeon and consider hammertoe repair that will remove your corns permanently.
To contact our office to discuss removing your corns, click here.
