What To Do When You Injure Your Toe

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Toe injuries are pretty common - we treat a lot of them here at Affiliated Foot & Ankle Center. The problem with a toe injury is that it’s not always immediately clear what’s gone wrong. People ask you, “Is it broken?” and maybe you say “Nah, I don’t think so!” but there’s a nagging voice in your head that’s wondering….is it? Or is it just a sprain?

The truth is that it’s hard to know how badly you’ve injured your toe - even if you’ve got a medical team at your beck and call. Take the Minnesota Twins’ centerfielder Byron Buxton, for example. He took a foul ball right off his foot - his left big toe, to be exact - but all the team’s doctors and all the team’s men seemed to think at first that it was just a bruise. Several weeks and one MRI later, doctors discovered a hairline fracture. As a result, he’s been out of the game for many weeks.

You may not be a professional baseball player, but losing weeks of action out of your own routine can be annoying at best and debilitating at worst. Whenever you injure your toe, we recommend that you not play the guessing game. Minimize your pain, suffering, and loss of activity by contacting Dr. Samantha Boyd, Dr. Hal Ornstein, and Dr. Joseph Saka and make an appointment to see us in either our Howell or Jackson, New Jersey offices.

Treatment for toe injuries

Our doctors will begin by examining your toe, checking its range of movement, and asking you questions to determine the extent of the injury. Be prepared to answer questions about

  • when and how the injury occurred
  • your level of pain
  • what home treatments you may have tried, including what pain medications taken

If necessary, we might proceed with other diagnostic tools that we have right here in our office:

  • digital x-rays take clear, immediate images of your foot, particular the bones
  • ultrasound, which does a better job of showing us any potential damage to the soft tissues surrounding the bones

If surgery is necessary, we are board-certified to perform it.

Our combination of the latest podiatry technology and years of experience treating toe injuries should give you the confidence you need to consult our Monmouth County podiatry practice whenever you injure your toe - or have any foot pain at all. Visit us online or call us at (732) 905-1110.