Health in the Home

Southland Times, Issue 22011, 10 May 1933, Page 9

Health in the Home

BUNIONS. (By a Family Doctor.) When the shoe is too tight and too pointed the big toe becomes pushed over towards the other toes. As it does so it slides partly out of the socket of its joint, and forms a prominence on the inner side of the foot. This prominence and partially dislocated joint becomes continually pressed upon and irritated, giving rise to considerable pain and to the laying down of new bone, tending to make it even more prominent. The skin oyer this part becomes thickened . and inflamed from the continual irritation, and a bunion is formed. The treatment of this condition in its early stages is, first and foremost, to wear well-fitting shoes. The toe may be discouraged from turning inwards by separating it from the next toe by means of a rubber wedge. Socks or stockings may be worn with a separate “finger,” as it were, for the big toe. The shoes can be so designed that there is a separate socket into which the big toe fits and which keeps it close un against the side of the shoe. Should the bunion have formed, it may in the early stages be protected by a com-pad made either of plaster or rubber . Well-established bunions, however, yield only to the surgeon’s knife.