Naturally, this leads people to wonder if a soft hammertoe can be reversed and flattened before it progresses to its rigid form. In today’s blog, we explain some of the treatment techniques used to try and reverse a flexible hammertoe.

Reversing Soft Hammertoes

Before we dive into some of the techniques that may help to reverse your flexible hammertoe, we need to ensure that you don’t keep accidentally making the condition worse. Oftentimes hammertoes develop and worsen as a result of poor footwear choices. If your shoes are too tight, your toes will naturally be scrunched, and chronically being in this position can harm those toe ligaments. So before you proactively treat the problem, you need to evaluate your shoes and make sure that you switch to a better-fitting shoe that allows your toes to lay flat.

Once you’ve done that, here are some treatment techniques you can pursue to actively help strengthen and heal the soft tissues that aid in toe control.

1. Physical Therapy – Physical therapy is the best active form of treatment for soft hammertoes. Your physical therapist or foot specialist will set you up with some simple toe movement exercises that you can perform from the comfort of your home. Slowly but surely, if you stick to the program, your toe ligaments will get stronger and you’ll notice that your soft hammertoe is flattening. If it doesn’t flatten, a PT program should at least help to keep the condition from worsening.

2. Custom Orthotics – Orthotic inserts can change how stress is dispersed on your feet and toes, and this can help to take some strain off your toe ligaments. Most generic inserts won’t be able to provide the intended effect, but a foot specialist can custom build an orthotic to your specific foot pattern so that your toes can be better protected when you’re wearing shoes.

3. Splinting – Toe splinting or toe taping is another effective technique for helping the toe ligaments get used to a naturally flat position. You can have your doctor show you how to apply a splint, or you can look up hammertoe taping tutorials on Youtube to learn how you can quickly perform the technique yourself so that you can apply and deconstruct the splint as you see fit.

If you do these three things and you take action as soon as you notice that a hammertoe is forming, we’re confident that you’ll be able to reverse your soft hammertoe. If you put off treatment for too long, they can transition to a stiff hammertoe, which typically requires surgery to treat.

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The Causes Of Rigid Hammertoes

A hammertoe is a condition that involves a visible deformity of the toe joint. Due to pressure or stress, muscles in the toe become weak, which in turn leads to tendon shortening. This shortened tendon causes the toes to curl under the feet instead of allowing them to lay flat. It becomes a self-serving cycle, where the injured tendon only continues to get worse unless active treatment modalities are sought.

One of the bright spots about hammertoes is that it tends to be a slow-developing condition. In other words, while the process can be accelerated by an injury, it’s not going to develop over night. However, this also means that some people incorrectly think that they have plenty of time to correct the problem, and if they put off treatment, it may be less effective by the time they get around to it.

That is often the case with rigid hammertoes. Hammertoes tend to begin in the flexible form, which are more malleable and as such, they respond better to conservative treatment. But if you keep doing the same activities and exposing your feet to similar stress patterns, you can lose some of this muscle and tendon flexibility, leading to the onset of rigid hammertoes. As the name implies, these bent joints are more stiff and less responsive to non-operative treatment.

Treating Rigid Hammertoes

So what is the best way to treat rigid hammertoes? The best form of treatment is prevention, which involves wearing comfortable shoes and stopping problems in their infancy. But for the sake of this blog, let’s assume you’re dealing with one or more rigid hammertoes on your foot. What should you do in this scenario?

First, you should set up an appointment with a foot specialist. They can take a look at the toes and determine how much damage has occurred, as well as the likelihood that the toe can be corrected with certain treatments. If they think surgery can be avoided, this will often be the route they’ll choose. In these cases, treatment will almost always involve shoewear changes to an option that is more protective of the toes, and a few weeks of physical therapy. PT will help to condition and strengthen the muscles and joints so that they can better handle pressure and avoid curling.

Conservative care produces mixed results for rigid hammertoes, and for cases that cannot be corrected with non-operative options, surgery is likely recommended if the toes are making it hard to wear shoes or are causing pain. The most common surgery is called a PIP joint fusion, which stands for proximal interphalangeal joint fusion. During the procedure, your toe is straightened and stabilized by fusing two small bones in the toe together. You’ll lose flexibility at the joint, but it will also correct the deformity. It has a high rate of success for patients who do not respond well to other methods.

So if you are dealing with the formation of a hammertoe, start looking into your treatment options sooner rather than later. Earlier intervention produces better results and can help you avoid surgery. For more information or for help with your foot or toe issues, reach out to Dr. Silverman’s office today.

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Hammertoes are sometimes misdiagnosed as a claw toe. Both conditions involve toe contracture at the joint, but a claw toe means that a person has joint damage at the middle and end joint of their toe, while a hammertoe only involves a bend at the middle toe joint. In addition to diagnosing your hammertoe, your doctor will also classify it as either flexible, semi-rigid or rigid. The more rigid the joint is, the more pain it will cause.

A hammertoe can develop for a variety of reasons, but the three most common causes of hammertoes are:

Genetics – The genes you get from your parents may be responsible for your hammertoe. If you have flat, flexible feet, you may be at a heightened risk for hammertoes because your foot muscles are overworked trying to stabilize against a flattening arch.

Improper Footwear – Narrow shoes are another reason people develop hammertoes. Avoid the pointy heels, and your feet will thank you. Not surprisingly, hammertoes are more common in women.

Previous Foot Condition – Hammertoes can also be the result of a neuromuscular disease or diabetes.

Treatments For Hammertoe

Ideally, you’ll take steps to prevent the formation of a hammertoe, but as you can guess, there’s not much you can do if it’s in your genes. That said, you can help prevent the formation of hammertoes by wearing wider shoes and performing foot strengthening exercises. Exercises can also help stop pain in when a hammertoe is in an early stage.

If you can’t find relief from pain caused by a hammertoe, surgery may be your best option. There are a few different surgical options you can choose. These procedures are generally preformed on an outpatient basis, meaning you can leave the clinic the same day that you have surgery.

Tendon Rerouting – This is typically preformed on individuals with a flexible hammertoe. It involves rerouting the tendons from the bottom of the toe to the top of the affected joint. This helps pull the bent joint back into place.

Joint Resectioning – This procedure can help fix rigid or semi-rigid hammertoes. Ligaments and tendons are cut, the end of the bone is removed to allow the toe to completely straighten, and pins are used to straighten the toe. The pins are usually removed after about 3-4 weeks.

Joint Fusion – The ends of the bones are addressed, and pins or screws are used to keep the bones in place while they heal fused to one another.

If you’re dealing with pain caused by a hammertoe, visit a foot specialist today.

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