Treatment
In many cases, conservative treatment consisting of physical therapy and new shoes with soft, spacious toe boxes is enough to resolve the condition, while in more severe or longstanding cases orthopedic surgery may be necessary to correct the deformity. The patient's doctor may also prescribe some toe exercises that can be done at home to stretch and strengthen the muscles. For example, the individual can gently stretch the toes manually, or use the toes to pick things up off the floor. While watching television or reading, one can put a towel flat under the feet and use the toes to crumple it. The doctor can also prescribe a brace that pushes down on the toes to force them to stretch out their muscles. Some treatment options involve surgery. Traditional ways have been the use of k-wires, but now there are treatments that don't require pins protruding through the ends of the toes. For example, the MiToe implant requires only one surgery. Unlike the k-wire, these implants remain within the toe, requiring no uncomfortable removal procedures. Due to their permanent implantation status, these devices are regarded as a more reliable solution for hammertoe. Because there are no protruding elements that need to be accounted for, the wearing of normal footwear may be resumed quickly after surgery, depending on the advice of the surgeon and the comfort needs of the patient.
Read more about this topic: Hammer Toe
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“The motion picture made in Hollywood, if it is to create art at all, must do so within such strangling limitations of subject and treatment that it is a blind wonder it ever achieves any distinction beyond the purely mechanical slickness of a glass and chromium bathroom.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“To me, nothing can be more important than giving children books, It’s better to be giving books to children than drug treatment to them when they’re 15 years old. Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn’t have to put them in prisons?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)