What’s Causing The Pain In Your Big Toe?

Whether your toe pain has come on hard and fast or has been building up slowly, whether you know what caused it or you have no idea, one thing is for sure: problems with the toes are frustrating, painful, and can make our days very inconvenient. 

Two common questions our podiatrists get are “how do I fix my toe” and “how do I stop the pain”. Our less than ideal, yet 100% accurate answer is: well, what’s your injury or problem? Just like how the cause of your tummy ache can range from food poisoning to taking your vitamins on an empty stomach, there is a big range of things that can go wrong with our toes. Only when we know what that is, can we know how to best treat it – without wasting time and money. 

So to help, today we’ve gone over ten causes of toe pain that our patients commonly experience and our podiatrists can help with. Starting with… 

 

1. Overloading the joint

When excess pressure is put through the big toe joint and the toe itself, damage can occur. Most commonly this comes in the form of capsulitis, meaning the inflammation of the joint capsule, or synovitis, meaning the inflammation of the synovial membrane that lines our joints.

 

2. Sesamoiditis

This one comes fairly commonly to our patients who are avid runners. You have two floating bones below the big toe called your sesamoid bones, held in place by tendons that embed them. Sesamoiditis is the inflammation of these tendons following damage to the area.

 

3. Turf toe

Simply put, this is the medical term for spraining your big toe. When your big toe is suddenly thrust upwards, damage occurs to the ligaments surrounding the big toe which become sprained – just like the ligaments surrounding our ankles can become sprained when we roll it. Turf toe gets its name from its higher occurrence rate on artificial turf.

 

4. Ingrown toenail

When a small part of your toenail pierces the skin and starts to grow down into it, this is called an ingrown toenail. It can be extremely painful and have your toe looking red and swollen, with some bleeding or discharge potentially coming from the side of the nail. Ingrown toenails can affect anyone at any time.

 

5. Gout

Gout occurs when uric acid levels build up in the bloodstream, and the uric acid crystallises at the big toe joint. This makes for a very painful, red and swollen big toe joint. Gout is classified as a rheumatic disease and occurs in sporadic flares.

 

6. Stress fracture

When excess force is applied to a bone over time, it starts forming tiny cracks which grow bigger over time as the bone continues to be exposed to stress. The result is a stress fracture. Stress fractures are progressive, meaning that the symptoms start quite mild and worsen with time as cracks grow and more form. As these cracks don’t show up on x-ray straight away, they can often be missed or misdiagnosed.

 

7. Raynaud’s

If your toe feels numb and looks white as well as feeling painful, you may have Raynaud’s affecting the arteries at the toes. In Raynaud’s, cooler temperatures cause blood vessels to constrict, supplying less blood to the toes. This can get quite painful. As the toes warm, the vessels dilate and blood rushes in, the toes may tingle, feel like they’re burning or sore.

 

8. Osteoarthritis

If you have a stiff big toe joint, there’s a good chance that osteoarthritis may be one of the reasons. Osteoarthritis leads to changes in the bones and joints that restrict movement. Due to the significant role that the big toe joint plays in everyday movement and the pressure it is subjected to, it is commonly affected. The result is stiffness, pain and other foot problems that develop in response to the big toe stiffness.

 

9. Bunion

While some bunions can be painless, especially in the early stages, bunions also have the potential to cause a great deal of discomfort and pain because of the changes occurring at the big toe joint. Bunions are progressive, starting off with small changes and worsening over time until the joint is very stiff and the big toe starts overriding or under-riding the second toe. 

 

10. Corn

If you have some callus around your big toe and you’re getting a lot of pain, you may have a corn. Corns typically appear either beneath or on the inside of the big toe joint. They develop in response to pressure or friction – whether that’s from your foot posture, rubbing against your shoes, or something else. Thankfully, corns are very easily removed by your podiatrist!

 

Need help with your toe pain?

If you’re experiencing pain in your big toe, we’d love to help. Whether it’s one of these ten problems or something else, our podiatrists will perform a comprehensive assessment to uncover the problem, its cause and prescribe an effective treatment plan.

Book an appointment with us online here or call us on 06 370 4057

 

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