Is Your Foot Pain A Neuroma?
When you’re walking, do you often feel like you have a pebble in your shoe? Do you experience a sensation that your sock is folded under the ball of your foot? If you don’t find anything strange in your shoe, you may have Morton’s neuroma.
Morton’s neuroma is a painful condition that usually affects the area under your third and fourth toes. You won’t find a lump or any other outward sign, but you may experience:
A feeling that there is something in your shoe.
Numbness or tingling in your toes.
Burning pain that starts in the ball of your foot and may radiate to the toes.
A neuroma is a benign enlargement or thickening of the tissue around a nerve. This condition may be a response to pressure, injury, or nerve irritation. You may be at risk of Morton’s neuroma if you wear high heels that jam your toes into a narrow space, participate in high-impact sports like running or jogging, or have a foot deformity such as a bunion, hammertoe, flat feet, or high arch.
Treating Morton’s Neuroma
After diagnosing Morton’s neuroma, your podiatrist will develop a treatment plan based on the severity of your symptoms.
You may find relief simply by switching to lower-heeled shoes with wider toe boxes.
Professional treatments may include:
Conservative methods include a custom-fitted orthotic or shoe insert molded to fit your foot. These can help reduce pressure on the nerve.
Steroid injections.
Decompression surgery - This is where nerve pressure is relieved by cutting nearby ligaments and other structures.
Surgical removal of the nerve.
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy – This is also an excellent treatment option for many patients with neuroma pain. Shockwave therapy uses intense pulses of sound waves to break up the tissue and increase blood flow to the injured area.
Here at PodiatryCare, PC, and the Heel Pain Center, we specialize in custom orthotics and other foot and ankle ailments. Dr. Charlotte George, Dr. Matthew Tschudy, Dr. Rebecca Wiesner, Dr. Kristen Winters, Dr. Laura Vander Poel, and the rest of our team are dedicated to helping our Hartford County patients. To schedule an appointment at our Enfield location, call (860) 741-3041; for an appointment at our South Windsor location, call (860) 644-6525.