Fractured toes can be very painful, just as any fractured bone will be painful. You would think that such a little extremity would not cause so much pain, but a fractured toe / broken toe can sometimes be more painful than other fractured bones because of the pressure that you place on the toe throughout the day! Fractured toe pain can be hard to bear, but a little research and consultation with your podiatrist or physician will show that there are many simple ways to relieve toe pain on your fractured toe.
How Can You Tell If Your Toe Is Fractured?
- The first signs of a broken toe will be pain and a bruised, discolored toe may occur shortly after the initial trauma. Most toe fractures are the result of direct trauma of some kind.
- There are many signs of a broken toe. After the injury, pain, swelling, or stiffness will occur. Bruising of the skin around the toe may also be noticeable. It may be difficult to walk because of the fractured toe pain, and shoes may be painful to wear or feel tight. This can sometimes have counter-intuitive responses, as you want to protect the toe as it heals but wearing a shoe can cause more pain to your fractured toe. The toe may not look normal, and it may even look bent or deformed if the broken bone is out of place.
- Stubbing toes and dropping things on them is extremely common. Stubbing the toe hard enough could cause a sprained toe, but could also result in a fractured toe.
- Sometimes broken or fractured toes may occur as a result of systemic disorders such as osteoporosis. For this reason evaluation is important especially when there seems to be no obvious history of major trauma which has caused the fractured toe or if you regularly fracture or break your toe with seemingly no cause of the fracture.
How Can You Prevent Toe Fractures?
Toe fractures are easily prevented by:
- Wearing appropriate safety shoes/boots. This includes the use of steel toe safety shoes or a steel toe work boot where boots are required;
- Ensuring protective footwear is worn whenever lifting or working with heavy objects or machinery;
How Do You Treat A Broken Toe?
Fractured toe treatment involves:
- Elimination of pressure from shoes/boots. You may want to invest in a good pair of sandals while your toe heals, particularly a type of sandal that will both protect your fractured toe while still giving it air to breathe and no pressure on the fractured toe.
- Splinting is often suggested to encourage healing with correct toe alignment. This can be done cheaply by taping a custom-sized popsicle stick (tongue depressor) to both sides of the fractured toe, then taping the fractured toe and tongue depressors to the neighbor toe(s). I recommend the following advertisement splints, but also a sponsored link for tongue depressors:
- Your podiatrist will more than likely want to do an x-ray evaluation. Just look under 'P' in the Yellow Pages or visit "Find a Podiatrist" to find a podiatrist close to you.
Surgery on a fractured or broken toe is rarely necessary unless the fracture has severely distorted the shape of the toe or where skin penetration by the toe bone has occurred. In most cases your physician or podiatrist will simply tape or strap the broken toe to it's neighbor toe for 4-6 weeks until healing has finished and suggest that you take pain killers while the pain subsides.
Of course, see your Podiatrist or Doctor if you notice any sudden onset of pain, discomfort, redness or swelling of the foot or the toes.
Note: "Fracture" is a term commonly used in place of "broken" and vice versa when talking about broken bones of any kind.
