Calluses on toes, heels, feet and soles
Content:
- What are corns?
- Symptoms of corns
- Causes of corns
- Corns on the sole with a rod
- Callus treatment
- Removal of corns by laser
- Prevention of corns
What are corns?
Corns (dry calluses) is a thickening of the surface layer of the skin on the feet (a collection of dead skin cells). Such formations develop due to repeated mechanical irritations and pressure on the skin of the feet. Constant chafing leads to impaired blood circulation in this area and increases the keratinization of the skin. While walking, the corns remind of themselves with burning and severe pain. Most often formed at the base of the toes and on the "pad".
If corns appear periodically over a long period of time, it is worth contacting an orthopedist. This may indicate the development of flat feet.
To avoid corns, you should carefully approach the choice of shoes. It should be of high quality, fit exactly in size, be sure to have a comfortable last and not too thin sole. If the shoes are not comfortable enough, you often have to wear a high heel or stiletto heel, you need to use special insoles or linings.
Statistics say that women have corns 10 times more often than men. Such numbers are due to the fact that ladies are ready to sacrifice convenience for the sake of beauty, wearing tight shoes or high-heeled shoes.
Is it possible to get rid of corns?
According to experts, with the right approach, it is possible to cure them. Although at home it will take a lot of patience and time. In the beauty salon, calluses are removed during a pedicure. It can be hardware or manual. In the first case, various nozzles are used, as a result, the place of the corns is carefully sanded. A properly performed procedure does not deliver any painful sensations. For manual pedicure, instead of a device, special creams and instruments are used.
Removing corns is also possible at home. First you need to make a half-hour foot bath. It can be with the addition of soda or sea salt. After that, treat the sore spot with a pumice stone and apply a keratolytic agent. The choice of such drugs is large. You can try several different ones to find an effective remedy. In each case, it cannot be guaranteed that the cream that helped one person will immediately get rid of calluses and another. The composition of keratolytic agents includes the same active ingredients. Among them, there must be salicylic acid, which has a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory effect, as well as plant extracts. They soften the skin.
Complete list of home remedies for corns
In addition to creams, keratolytic agents are presented in the form of a patch. It should be glued strictly on the corns, avoiding healthy skin. From above it is fixed for reliability with an ordinary plaster. You can wear it on your foot for more than one day. Then the procedure is repeated.
Natural remedies are quite effective. They are harmless when used correctly, but they have many beneficial properties.
You can do the following compresses:
- put potato or onion gruel on steamed legs and leave overnight;
- put on socks well soaked in vegetable oil and keep for several hours;
- apply chopped celandine or cut aloe leaves to the corns at night;
Symptoms of corns
At the initial stage of development of the corns, redness and swelling of the foot appear. Further, it is a gray or yellow area of skin without clear boundaries, has a smooth or rough surface, on which cracks of different depths are sometimes located. Corns can be either flat or convex. In this area, the sensitivity of the skin to touch is reduced. Painful sensations usually appear while walking. The pain increases with an inflamed or infected condition, as well as with the formation of deeper cracks in the foot.
Sometimes corns are associated with an enlargement of the big toe and its displacement in relation to the other toes. This puts more stress on the thumb and causes intermittent or constant aching pain.
The corns results in soft tissue edema and redness.
Causes of corns
Tight shoes
Most often, corns occur due to the wrong choice of shoes. Tight, high-heeled or stiff insoles, it puts more stress on the feet. Wearing it leads to impaired blood circulation and hardening of the skin in certain areas. Over time, corns are formed there. This reason is more common among women than among men. Girls prefer tight high-heeled or stiletto heels. The weight in such shoes is unevenly distributed and leads to the appearance of dry calluses.
Stress and fungal diseases
Callosities on the soles are a common occurrence for people with diabetes mellitus and have extra pounds, which puts a lot of stress on the feet. Another cause of dry calluses is frequent nervous disorders. Although at first glance, it is difficult to see the connection between corns and stress. Metabolic disorders and fungal diseases also contribute to the formation of dry calluses.
Disruption of the work of internal organs
Scientists have come to the conclusion that calluses appear on certain areas of the foot for a reason. This indicates the presence of this or that disease. A dry callus under the little toe on the right foot may indicate a violation of the normal functioning of the liver, on the left - about problems with the cardiovascular system. It is worth contacting an endocrinologist if corns appear on the thumbs. Perhaps this is due to diseases of the thyroid gland. Dry calluses on the heels indicate intestinal or joint problems.
If the cause of the appearance of corns on the feet is a disease of other organs or systems of the body, you need to consult a doctor. He will find the necessary treatment. In such cases, dry callus remedies are ineffective. After all, these are only external manifestations of health problems that need to be addressed. Having eliminated the cause, it will be possible to get rid of the consequence - corns.
Other reasons
- Overweight, poor circulation in the legs, and increased sweating of the legs can also lead to the appearance of corns.
- Changes in the shape of the foot (for example, flat feet, deformity of the bones of the leg, bony growths on the joints) lead to the fact that the pressure is distributed unevenly. In those places of the foot, where the pressure is maximum, corns appear.
- In addition, the risk of ear corns increases in people with rheumatoid arthritis or nervous diseases.
- Often, calluses disturb runners and ballerinas.
With proper prevention, their occurrence can be avoided. It is enough to choose high-quality shoes and rest on time. It is important to keep an eye on the figure: excess weight creates additional stress on the legs. It is also recommended to periodically make soothing baths for the feet and smear them with moisturizing cream.
Corns on the sole with a rod
Such calluses are rough areas of the skin with a deeply penetrating root. It is called the core. Because of it, corns become a source of pain when moving. There is a hat on top of the rod. As the disease progresses, it increases in size. Therefore, it is impossible to delay with its treatment. Corns with a rod are of two types, depending on the causes.
In the first case, they, like ordinary dry calluses, appear as a result of constant exposure to the skin area. In women, they occur in the soft part of the foot under the toes. The reason for this is tight high-heeled shoes. Runners often suffer from core corns, which can result from regular exercise. Therefore, it is necessary to practice in special shoes.
The cause of the second type of dry corn with a rod is a virus. In this case, you need to fight not only with its external signs on the skin, but also take the appropriate antimicrobial drugs.
Unlike ordinary calluses, it is more difficult to treat corns with a core. This is due to the presence of a deep root. You can cope with them on your own, but not in advanced cases. When the rod has penetrated deep enough, it is better to contact a specialist. Removal of such a callus should be carried out in a hospital, since sterility must be carefully observed. Otherwise, when contracting an infection, various complications are possible. In addition, only a doctor with the help of special tools will remove the corns without leaving the rod. With superficial treatment, dry calluses will reappear on the affected skin area.
Home remedies are great when the calf has a shallow core.
On the subject: how to quickly get rid of corns?
There are several effective recipes:
- keep your feet in a soda-soap or mustard solution. When the skin is steamed, carefully remove the cap and root. It is often not possible to do this the first time, so a course of procedures is carried out. After the baths, use a cream with a greasy texture to moisturize;
- as for the treatment of ordinary corns, onion compresses are suitable. On top of the gruel, you need to stick a plaster;
- prunes cooked in milk can be applied to the diseased skin area. It must be hot;
- a compress of garlic and lard at night does not have a very pleasant smell, but it helps well with corns with a rod;
- you can apply a crust of black bread dipped in vinegar essence.
However, if long-term treatment with folk remedies does not help, an urgent need to consult a doctor. Keratolytics, plasters, compresses, baths - all of this refers to superficial treatment and does not relieve deep-core corns. Especially if it's old calluses. In the case of them, it is necessary to carry out the removal in the clinic.
Callus treatment
When a corns appears, the first step is to eliminate the traumatic factor that contributed to its appearance: give up tight and hard shoes, hard insoles, heels, go to looser shoes and shoes.
If the corns are the result of deformation of the bones of the leg or flat feet, you should consult an orthopedist. The doctor will give advice on the correction of flat feet, help with the selection of special shoes and instep support insoles.
The next step is to eliminate the corns itself. In order for the skin to perform its functions, it is necessary to get rid of the stratum corneum. Keratolytic cream will help to remove it. It is applied to an area with keratinized skin, sealed with a plaster and left overnight. In the morning, when the skin softens, the corns is treated with pumice. As a rule, after several procedures, the problem disappears.
Callus patches can be used to treat corns. Their surface contains the necessary medicinal components.
If you need to relieve pain and inflammation, you can use medications (aspirin, naproxen, ibuprofen) or simply apply a cold compress.
Never cut corns, especially if you have circulatory problems. In some cases, surgical methods are used to remove corns. After the operation, special shoes are selected and physical activity is limited. Such measures reinforce the success of the surgical procedure.
An X-ray examination of the leg will not be superfluous. The scan will help check the integrity of the joints of the legs and find out if there are other conditions, such as gout or arthritis.
Among the modern methods of treating corns are:
- Keratolytic agents: features, composition
- Plasters from corns
- Special pencils for corns
- Baby Foot Japanese Socks
- Hardware pedicure
- Cryodestruction
- Laser therapy
- Anti-corns pads
Removal of corns by laser
To get rid of corns in medicine today is used:
- drilling;
- cryotherapy;
- laser therapy.
Drilling
In the first case, the treatment is carried out by a cosmetologist. In this case, an apparatus with various drills is used. This method is suitable for rodless corns. The area of the skin with it is twice processed with a bur of a larger and then a smaller diameter. In this case, there should be no blood. The procedure is usually painless. In advanced cases, a course of baths is first carried out.
Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy involves removing corns with liquid nitrogen. It is used when calluses are neglected or have a deep core. Cryotherapy treats the affected skin area with liquid nitrogen, which is odorless and colorless. After a few days, the callus-shaped seal will disappear. This treatment is painful and can be unpleasant. There is a risk of infecting healthy skin near the corns or causing an infection after treatment with liquid nitrogen, so you should carefully consider caring for your feet after the procedure.
Removal of corns by laser
Removing dry calluses with a laser is the most effective and painless method. Among its main advantages it is worth noting:
- lack of blood during the procedure;
- the duration of treatment is only a few minutes;
- no pain due to local anesthesia;
- one treatment session is enough to solve the problem;
- after the procedure, you can stand up on your entire foot and actively move.
Some time after the laser therapy, new healthy skin will appear on the site of the diseased area. If the corn has a core, then as a result of the procedure, it will be completely removed. If you follow all the doctor's recommendations and carry out prophylaxis, corns will no longer appear in this place. For several weeks you will need to wear a special bandage and use a special insole. This will avoid complications and pressure on the corns.
Although laser therapy is not the cheapest way to get rid of dry calluses. But for a positive effect, one procedure is enough, so you should not save on your health.
Laser treatment is harmless and leaves no residue. The beam simply destroys dead skin cells at the site of the corns. Moreover, it does not affect healthy tissues around. In addition, a quick recovery from laser therapy eliminates the possibility of complications or infection.
There are contraindications for treatment with this method. It is not suitable for people with diabetes or cancer. It cannot be used even if there are wounds and injuries on the skin.
It is necessary to go to the clinic to see a podiatrist. He can carry out laser treatment and give appropriate recommendations on how to avoid corns in the future. It is also worth consulting a podiatrist. Dry calluses can be caused by problems with the musculoskeletal system.
In conclusion, it should be noted that corns are formed very often. If you notice their appearance in time, you can deal with them yourself. The main thing is to choose high-quality shoes for constant wear and special shoes for sports. But the treatment of neglected calluses should be entrusted to specialists in order to get rid of them for a long time and not get complications. The procedure carried out by a professional is painless, does not take much time and is the most effective way to solve the problem of corns.
Prevention of corns
- The main rule for preventing corns is to wear comfortable shoes. This is not only comfort, but also the health of your feet until old age. Choose shoes that are soft enough to fit your foot size and shape.
- It is more useful to choose models with a spacious toe. This will prevent your toes from getting pinched or immobilized.
- Wear shoes as directed. Save fashionable high-heeled shoes for evening wear rather than daily wear.
- Do not walk for a long time in high-heeled shoes or, conversely, with flat soles.
- Give preference to socks made from natural materials. This will help your feet breathe and sweat less. Sweating provokes rubbing.
- To relieve pressure on the feet, use a pad of soft materials (felt, rubber, soft plastic), placing it on the area near the corns.
- Toe pads, toe covers and toe sleeves help soften the sole.
- Do not forget to take care of your feet regularly: do hot foot baths, treat the dead stratum corneum with pumice stone, use nourishing and emollient creams, massage your feet.
The author of the article: Kuzmina Vera Valerievna | Endocrinologist, nutritionist
Education: Diploma of the Russian State Medical University named after NI Pirogov with a degree in General Medicine (2004). Residency at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, diploma in Endocrinology (2006).
