If you’re dealing with bunions, you’re probably familiar with how inconvenient they can be. You might have to avoid wearing certain shoes or taking long walks. However, there are some nonsurgical treatments for bunion that are available.
1. Foot Mobilisation Therapy
Foot mobilisation Therapy (FMT) is a hands-on treatment, that aims to improve function through the foot, ankle and big toe. This helps strengthen the big toe, the joint, and the muscles in and around that area of the foot..
Benefits of foot mobilisation
- It’s a gentle approach, with significantly less pain or impact on day to day activity than bunion surgery.
- Unlike surgery or orthotics, FMT doesn’t require you to change your footwear or activities that you enjoy so it has far less limitation on your lifestyle
- FMT doesn’t require recovery time. The exercise and hands-on manipulation are completed over a series of sessions, with some quick at-home exercise to perform between sessions. Because the process is gentle and gradual, no recovery time is required between sessions
- It improves the function of the foot that caused the bunion in the first place. Your core walking and running patterns change as your foot strengthens which has a positive effect.
2. Home Exercises
Podiatry exercises, completed in a short amount of time at home, can be used to compliment a course of foot mobilisation therapy. The exercises target some of the larger muscles of the foot strengthening them in order to help to support the affected toe and surrounding tissues. This allows the area to heal and realign naturally, with long term results.
3. Use the right mix of hot and cold therapy
Hot and cold therapies are natural treatments for a wide range of conditions, and bunions are no exception. When your bunion is irritated, painful or swollen, treating it with the right mix of hot and cold therapies can be very soothing.
Cold therapies constrict blood vessels, which helps bring down swelling. So, soaking your bunion in cold water can help reduce that inflammation. Heat therapies help improve blood flow and relax sore joints and muscles. If you’re experiencing soreness or cramping in the bunion-affected area or in other areas of your foot, soaking your feet in warm water can feel great.
4. Maintain a healthy weight
Your feet have a lot of work to do. They support your body and help you move everywhere you go – so they’re they’re under constant pressure. But by striving to maintain a healthy body weight, you can reduce excess pressure.
5. Use footwear accessories to help soothe and protect bunions
There are several assistive accessories that can be purchased to protect your bunion and help reduce pain. Examples include:
- Bunion gel pads or moleskin pads act as a cushion, covering the bunion and other pressure points to protect them from irritation.
- Bunion sleeves, sometimes called bunion correctors slide onto your big toe and the ball of your foot. Like pads, sleeves protect the bunion from rubbing inside shoes, but are more locked in due to their design. While they can offer pain relief, it’s important to know that bunion correctors can’t permanently heal a bunion. It won’t align the bones, muscles and ligaments inside your foot.
- Bunion toe spacers fit between the big toe and the second toe, and can keep them from crowding and rubbing each other. Spacers can also help straighten the big toe and can be worn inside shoes.
- Bunion splints wrap around your big toe and foot, similar to a sleeve. Splints temporarily straighten your big toe, which can help reduce pain and discomfort. Splints can’t be worn with shoes, so they’re usually worn at night.
What if the bunion is bone?
If the bump that makes up your bunion is bone then the only true way to remove that lump is via surgery. Despite its popularity as a suggested treatment option, a surgical approach shouldn’t be recommended until confirmation that the issue causing you bunion cannot be resolved with foot mobilisation and physical therapy.