Pain in the foot?  Feel like there is a ball squashed up between your toes when there isn’t?  Tingling and/or numbness in the toes?  All these signs and symptoms may be linked to pressure building on the nerves of your feet, officially called a “Morton’s Neuroma”.  This is usually a build up of stress around the plantar nerve where it travels between the 3rd and 4th toe, and the tissue surrounding the nerve thickens and compresses the nerve -ouch!

Common culprits for this stress may be shoes that are too tight across the width (therefore squashing the mid foot area) and or too high (which put more load through the toes). People with changes to the foot posture (e.g bunions/flat feet; hyper mobile feet) may be more predisposed to Morton’s neuroma.

So how do I manage this pain?

Sometimes the obvious answer is the best one…by simply offloading the stress and pressure to the toes you can change your pain – if possible, try wearing footwear that doesn’t force all the toes heavily together.  Failing that, certain types of orthotics (foot supports) can be trialled to support the arch and spread the toes – this can offload the building pressure.  Ultimately if these changes don’t improve your pain, a cortisone injection may be advised by your doctor.