05 May Foot Health Questions – What Is A Corn?

Quite often new clients call and their reason for a mobile visit from Healthy Feet is due to discomfort of a corn but they are unsure if they have self diagnosed this correctly.

 It can be a tricky business to reach your feet and look at them close up to establish the reason for your discomfort.

The good news is that a corn is nothing to worry about and a visit from a foot health professional will be effective in providing diagnosis and relief.

 Basically the corn is a circular area of dead skin which has happened due to pressure pinching the skin to a point and starving the blood vessels to that area, causing dead skin cells. The dead skin inverts in a conical shape to a point and this is why you feel discomfort.

 There are both soft and hard corn types depending on the cause and the area of your foot affected.

 This can happen through your gait in how you walk may be in certain shoes, or an injury to your hips/knee that affects your posture or tight fitting shoes.

 How to treat a corn?

A foot health practitioner uses a file to remove the overlaid dead skin, and then a scalpel of which there are many sizes to remove the nucleus of the corn. There are creams that can soften the skin and corn area, and these also help in the prevention of corns reoccurring.

 If a corn is caused by a particular pair of shoes…the honest answer is to loose the shoes or perhaps try an insole or silicone insert to soften the impact of your walk. Toe separators and vaseline can be useful for soft corns occurring between toes.

Wherever possible if you can remove the cause then you will of course minimise the chance of reoccurrence. Depending on the cause, it may be something that has to be managed and helped by yourself, though we are always happy to visit. We treat your whole feet on an appointment and promise you are going to have much happier, healthier feet as a result!