Affiliated Foot Care Center
Call 860•349•8500 or 203•294•4977
While claw toe may be caused by wearing shoes that squeeze your toes, such as high heels, claw toes may also be the result of nerve damage, diabetes or alcoholism, which may weaken the muscles in your feet. A claw toe means your toe "digs" down into the sole of your shoe. This condition may create painful calluses. Claw toes may get worse without treatment, so it is very important to make an appointment with Doctor Fosdick so that he can relieve you of the problem.
A claw toe is a toe that is contracted at the middle and end joints in the toe, and can lead to severe pressure and pain. Ligaments and tendons that have tightened cause your toe's joints to curl downwards. Claw toes can occur in any toe, except the big toe. You may often feel pain at the top part of your toe as it rubs against your shoe and at the end of your toe that is pressed against the bottom of your shoe.
There are two types of claw toes, flexible and rigid. In a flexible claw toe, the joint has the ability to move. This type of claw toe can be straightened manually.
A rigid claw toe does not have that same ability to move. Movement is very limited and can be extremely painful. This sometimes causes foot movement to become restricted leading to extra stress at the ball-of-the-foot, and possibly causing pain and the development of corns and calluses.
You can develop claw toes from a muscle imbalance where your ligaments and tendons become unnaturally tight. Your toe joints curl downwards. You can also develop claw toes from arthritis.
We can prescribe shoes with a high, broad toe box that will provide enough room in the forefoot area so that you have less friction against your toes. We can also prescribe toe crests and hammer toe splints. Arthritis responds very well to High Powered Laser Therapy and that may cause the claw toe to relax completely. We will get you the relief you need from your pain.