What to do if your big toe hurts?

There are many reasons for big toe pain. You may feel pain in your big toe for no reason. There may be nothing abnormal on the outside, but you just feel pain and you don’t know why. This may be caused by paronychia. Corns can also cause toe pain. Plantar warts can also cause toe discomfort, inconvenience in walking, and unbearable swelling and pain. In this case, you should check the cause and then treat it symptomatically. Keep the skin of your feet clean at ordinary times, wear soft and comfortable shoes, and wear pure cotton socks for good skin. Some people are not used to wearing socks and shoes, which may cause discomfort to their feet. You need to pay attention to these in daily life and take good care of your feet. So what should you do if your big toe hurts? We must first find the cause of the big toe pain before treating it.

1. Corns

This is the most common one. It is characterized by thickened, hardened and yellow skin, which looks like a chicken's eye, hence the name. It hurts when walking or pressing. It usually grows on the outside or inside of the big toe. Most of the corns on the inside will spread to the second toe and exist symmetrically. Most of them are related to excessive exercise or overcrowded shoes. This type of corn patch is generally not effective, and freezing can be used.

2. Plantar warts

This is a viral infectious disease, similar to corns, but there are many black spots on the surface of the skin lesions, which is the most obvious difference between it and corns in symptoms; especially if there are more of them, plantar warts should be considered. Because of the local hyperplasia, there will be obvious pain when walking; corn patches are prohibited for the treatment of this disease, but you can go to the local hospital dermatology department for cryotherapy;

3. Paronychia

It manifests as local redness, swelling and pain, and in severe cases, pus will flow locally. This is mostly due to excessive nail trimming. Toenails or fingernails grow from under the skin at the root of the nail, and the growth rate of the middle and the sides is different. If the two sides are trimmed excessively, the toenails that originally grew forward will grow to the sides, which can easily irritate the skin and form paronychia. In this case, you can go to the clinic to get some oral antibiotics and trim the nails appropriately.

4. Onychomycosis

This type of infection is more common when half of the nail is infected with fungus. As we all know, ordinary fingernails or toenails grow close to the nail bed below. If only half of the toenail is infected with fungus, it will be passively pushed up after thickening, causing local pain. Frequent wearing of tight shoes will aggravate this situation. Most elderly people who suffer from onychomycosis will have toenail pain.

5. Gout

The first attack is often accompanied by sudden and acute pain in a single joint, most commonly in the big toe joint, but the surface skin is usually normal; subsequent attacks may involve multiple joints, such as the ankle and knee joints. If the attack occurs after eating seafood or drinking alcohol, this should be considered first;

6. Traumatic foreign bodies

This type is rare, usually caused by being stabbed when wearing sandals in the summer; if the foreign body is removed, it will quickly heal on its own; if it exists, it will either form something similar to paronychia or something similar to corns; it can be treated by freezing or laser;

7. Recommendations

If you can't determine the cause, you can go to the hospital for a check-up; it is generally believed that if it is a skin disease, there will be relatively hard bumps locally.