*FOOT FACT*
Approximately 10-25% of people have bunions!
If you have a bunion and want to discuss correction options with one of our experts, take the NEXT STEP and schedule your appointment today!!
bunions
treatment options
Conservative Care
Conservative care can help with bunions depending on the patient’s ultimate goal. If their goal is to have decreased symptoms and to feel less pain, then conservative care can be somewhat helpful with that.
If the patient’s goal is to have a more visually appealing foot that fits better into shoes, functions normally without causing ongoing stress at the joint, prevents degenerative arthritis and the associated gait changes, then medical evidence indicates there is little role for conservative care.
In summary, conservative care can be a temporarily solution, but it will not fix the deformity. (You will still have the bunion!)
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5 CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT OPTIONS
01
CHANGE YOUR SHOES
Most small and moderate bunion deformities can be symptomatically improved by discontinuing narrow shoes. A soft athletic type shoe that provides ample room is a great alternative.
Oftentimes, women can also purchase men’s shoes because they can be wider than the typical women’s shoe. However, the problem is most women do not want to wear wide shoes. ”Clunky” is a word we often hear when suggesting this option.
In our clinic, custom orthotics are a great tool to get pressure off the big toe joint.
Orthotics have to be made correctly in order to accomplish this (most are not) but they can really decrease the symptoms in a big toe joint.
At Next Step Foot and Ankle Clinic, we are the first to bring San Antonio and surrounding areas Custom 3D Orthotics with our FitStation by HP(Hewlett Packard), digitized for unparalleled accuracy.
Our FitStation provides thousands of data points on not only the pressure points of your foot standing still (as a cast would) and when your feet are in gait (a person’s manner of walking), giving the doctors a view of how your body as a whole is affecting each foot for your perfectly tailored fit. Helping relieve that pressure off the big toe joint.
Keep in mind, shoes that are narrow don’t work too well with orthotics.
02
SPLINTS OR STRAPPING YOUR SHOES
Using a splint can take a lot of stress off the joint. There are many bunion splints available on the Internet. They can cause a significant improvement in joint pain. Some splints are only made for nighttime use.
Frequently the daytime splints do not fit in shoes very well, so our doctors recommend using tape to try and splint the toe in a more rectus position.
03
MEDICATIONS
Medication for pain or arthritis such as Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen can temporarily help and reduce acute pain. Prescription medications can be more effective.
04
INJECTIONS
Sometimes in acute painful flares our doctors inject the joint with cortisone or other anti-inflammatory substances. This can be a very powerful tool for severe joint pain.
05
PHYSICAL THERAPY
Range of motion exercises, manipulation, ice, and heat stretching can help. Keep in mind the conservative care will not permanently correct the bunion deformity, but it will temporarily reduce the pain within the joint.
ADVANCED
MINIMIALLY INVASIVE
MINIMIALLY INVASIVE
for bunions
TREATMENT & SURGERY
OPTIONS
OPTIONS
Our doctors specialize in many advanced minimally and non-invasive treatments, and IF NECESSARY, advanced surgical techniques with patient proven success stories.
Some of those are used to treat your bunions, such as:
We are pioneers in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for bunions. We were the first in the San Antonio area to perform these procedures.
It is a great option for the right bunion and the right patient, but there is a great deal of misinformation out there about the procedure. It is not a panacea that makes surgery a magical experience, where you can have the surgery and be back in shoes the next day playing golf. Although, it is true that you can sometimes return to shoe gear more rapidly, any time you have a surgery on your foot you do yourself no favors by stressing it too early.
ADVANTAGES
In our experience the advantages of minimally invasive bunion surgery are that you have a little less swelling, less scar tissue, generally better range of motion after the surgery. The recovery time is about the same.
No matter what bunionectomy you have, if a bone is cut to fix your bunion (which is usually the case) it still takes about 6 weeks for that to heal.
All the traditional complications of surgery are still there with MIS bunion surgery. Numbness, infection, loss of position, delayed bone healing or recurrence can all occur. We love minimally invasive surgery in the right circumstance, but keep in mind it may not be right for you. Luckily, at Next Step Foot & Ankle Clinic our experts will find what is right for you based on an in-depth examination.
