Podiatrist - Scottsdale
South Scottsdale Office
North Scottsdale Office
After a long day at work on your feet in high heels your feet need a break. Fortunately, there is a simple and cheap way to take the pressure off your feet and keep your toes healthy. If you have ever had a pedicure you will know what a toe separator looks like. These simple devices actually come in a variety of forms for variety of uses. The ones you may have used at the pedicurist are a little bit different than ones used for podiatric purposes, but the idea of spacing the toes is the same.
The pedicurist's toe separators do however look rather similar to one podiatric version and that is the night splint toe separators. Night splint toe separators as you may have guessed are worn only at night, more specifically in bed. These ones, unlike the ones that the pedicurist uses, serve more than just helping you put on nail polish. For example, they function to provide short term immediate relief of irritation between rubbing crooked toes during bed rest. People who have corns between their toes will also find great irritation relief. Furthermore these night-time toe separators, also known as "splints", train the toes to straighten out which provide long term relief of irritation as well as improve your foot cosmetically. They work simply by holding your toes in a straightened position for extended periods of time while you are sleeping. Over time your toes start to adjust to this position and become straighter, similar to how wearing tight and pointyshoes can cause your toes to become crooked. There are two types of toe separators. One type that was mentioned above, which you use during the night, while resting, and the type that are made for day-time use. Day-time toe separators are designed to be hidden under loose fitting shoes. These separators decrease friction and irritation between crooked toes while wearing shoes. The decreased friction and rubbing allow irritated toes to heal and be free of pain and align.
Toe separators come in variety of sizes, shapes, and materials but the two most common ones are made of foam and gel/silcone. Foam separators are specifically popular for podiatric uses because a trained specialist can trim and shape them with scissors to fit between your toes perfectly. Gel separators are unique for their moisturizing features, meant to help increase healing time of chaffing skin on the toes. According to our consumers, one can feel the benefit a few hours after their first use. Toe separators have been used for years, and are a great way to keep your joint better aligned especially in the case of bunions.
You may wonder how something so simple and basic can actually give patients such great relief. To own a pair of these toe separators for yourself, you can either look for these items at foot-care section of any store, or head to Dr. Forman's store http://www.ourdoctorstore.com/forman/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=692&DEPARTMENT_ID=50 to feel the benefits first hand.