Metatarsalgia, or forefoot pain, refers to pain or tenderness in the ball of the foot. Individuals with metatarsalgia experience pain of varied intensity and discomfort and find difficulty in maintaining daily activities like walking or running.
Common causes:
- Overuse injury due to excessive loading of the forefoot
- Overweight
- Toes deformity (E.g. bunions, clawed or hammer toes)
- Arthritis
- Joint capsulitis
- Plantar plate injury
- Sesamoiditis (Inflammation or injury to the sesamoid bones under the big toe joint)
- Gout
- Morton’s Neuroma (Inflammation of nerve between the toes)
- Abnormal gait mechanics (e.g. overpronation, in-toeing or out-toeing gait)
- Trauma to foot causing fracture or stress fracture
- Reduced forefoot fatty padding with age
- Corns and callus
- Ill-fitting footwear
Diagnosis
It is important to achieve an accurate diagnosis so as to treat the condition appropriately. Our experienced Podiatrists will be able to diagnose the cause of your forefoot pain through a series of thorough biomechanical assessment which involves assessing your foot joints, standing posture and walking gait. In some cases, further investigation such as an X-ray or MRI may be required
Treatment
Based on the assessment, our podiatrists will curate a management plan which often involves a combination of the following:
- Footwear advice
- Prescription of insoles
- Offloading padding, metatarsal domes or gait plates
- Stretching exercises
- Intrinsic foot muscles strengthening exercises
- Ultrasound therapy
- Shockwave therapy
- Manual therapy
- Sports taping
- Activity moderation
Surgery is usually considered as the last option if the symptoms fail to resolve with conservative management methods.
If you are experiencing forefoot pain, feel free to consult our friendly podiatrists through our ‘Ask A Podiatrist’ Whatsapp service at 9175 4929.
