Cosmetic surgeries have become much more popular in recent decades, but the quest to shape our appearance with surgery can have significant downsides. This is especially true if patients are considering getting cosmetic surgery on their feet to address an issue on their foot. In today’s blog, we explain why purely cosmetic surgery should never be pursued on your feet.
Skip The Cosmetic Foot Procedure
We understand that you want to have sleek, sexy or just healthy looking feet, but you shouldn’t try to achieve these results with a cosmetic procedure. We’ve talked with patients who have wanted their bunions removed, their hammertoes flattened or asked to have collagen injected to build up the fat pads underneath their feet. There are ways to treat these issues, but surgery isn’t the answer if you’re not currently experiencing any physical symptoms.
Surgery may very well be in the cards if your bunion is painful or your hammertoes are rigid and uncomfortable, but it should not be pursued if you’re not experiencing symptoms and only hoping to achieve a purely cosmetic result. That’s because your foot is a highly complex biomechanical structure, with different bones, ligaments and tendons all doing their job to help bear weight when you walk and move. If you disrupt this mechanism, your ability to walk comfortably may be forever altered.
You can think of your foot similar to a Jenga tower. If it’s still standing upright, then the structure isn’t being overburdened with pressure in any damaging way. However, if you pull the wrong piece, the whole tower can collapse. Your foot may function just fine, but if you try to adjust it to be more cosmetically appealing, you can disrupt the entire integrity of the foot, causing the whole system to collapse. Don’t try to fix what’s not broken, or in this case, what’s not causing pain.
Also, a number of non-operative treatments may be able to help you find the relief you seek. Physical therapy can do wonders at flattening soft hammertoes, and shoe modifications can prevent bunions from continuing to shift out of place. Orthotic inserts can help to provide some extra cushion to certain areas of your feet, and these techniques are much less risky (and less expensive) than a cosmetic operation. If you’re really concerned about the look of a foot or ankle issue, reach out to a specialist and see if there are non-operative options available. Odds are they’ll be able to set you up with a treatment plan that helps you achieve the results you’re looking for.
You can make your feet look more attractive in a few different ways, but cosmetic surgery is not the answer if the issue is not causing pain.