What causes hammer toes?

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What are hammer toes?
Hammer fingers are a painful deformity of your second, third or fourth finger. The condition causes your toe or several fingers to contract upward and permanently bend in the middle joint. The end of the toe or fingers flexes downward and creates a shape that vaguely resembles a hammer.

What causes hammer toes?
Hammer toes are caused by imbalances in the strength of themuscles of the lower leg and foot. Your muscles work in pairs to straighten and bend the toes. If your toe bends and stays in the same position for a period of time, then your muscles tense and become unable to stretch.

It is believed that poorly fitting and high-heeled shoes play an important role in the development of hammer toes, as they can push the lower toes to a bent position that eventually causes the muscles of the toes Feet are unable to straighten the finger, even when there is no shoe confinement.

It is also believed that arthritis, injuries and bunions cause hammer toes. Narrow or high-heeled shoes can also cause the toes to rub against the shoe and this can cause calluses or calluses to form, which further aggravates the condition.
Problems associated with hammer toes
Sometimes hammer toes are just a cosmetic problem, but more often they are associated with pain caused by problems associated with having hammer toes that include:

Corns or calluses on the top of your toe, or between the toes that rub your shoes.
Calluses under the toe.
Pain in the tip of your foot, called metatarsalgia.
Arthritis pain or rheumatoid arthritis in the toe joints.
The bunion often exists with hammer fingers.
If you have hammer shoes, you also have the additional problem of finding comfortable shoes.

Hammer toe treatment options
Hammer toes that are just beginning to develop tend to be flexible and can be stretched manually and can improve with exercises that counteract muscle imbalance, such as those that push the foot up against resistance. However, the longer you have hammer toes, the more likely they are rigid or not reducible.

Changing your shoes can improve your hammer toes. It is advisable to choose shoes that are soft and have a high and wide toe to accommodate the fingers of the hammers and reduce friction against them. You should avoid wearing tight, narrow and high heeled shoes.

Other conservative treatments include the use of hammer toe ridges and hammer toe splints to help support the toe. Protective pads may be recommended to relieve the symptoms of hammer toes and friction of the shoe, and include gel toe protectors, gel toe protectors, cushions and corn pads without medication for relieve symptoms

A podiatrist can evaluate your hammer toes and recommend custom orthopedic arch supports and heel wedges to help counteract the imbalances that lead to hammer toes.

The only way to correct hammer fingers is with surgery. It is usually recommended if non-conservative measures have not relieved your symptoms or if you have secondary problems, such as skin wounds.

Typically, surgery is performed on an outpatient basis with local anesthesia. The exact procedure will be based on the type and extent of your deformity.


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