Bunion Therapy: Foot Mobilisation vs. Correctors

Bunions affects one in three people according to a recent study so needless to say this is a huge topic of conversation in our podiatry clinic. As result at any time 70% of the people I’m treating are bunion related. I have over 19 years’ experience working with bunions and in those 19 years one of the most common topic of questions is bunion correctors this is particularly true in the last couple of years as they are very widely promoted by companies like amazon on social media platforms.

Do Bunion Correctors work?

Unfortunately, they have been widely sold as a treatment/ conservative way to correct a bunion. This has been disproven in several studies. Believe me we would all like bunion correctors to work but unfortunately this just isn’t the case.

Firstly, they were never intending for the purpose they are now widely used for. Their original goals were to help the big toe set in a better position after they had broken the bones after surgery. And for this they are very effective.

So, the main reason that bunion correctors don’t work without surgery is that they don’t help to treat the underlying cause. So, the underlying cause of a bunion is the way someone stands and walks. So, they don’t really get to the root of the problem.

To put it in perspective when someone walks you can put up to 3 times your body weight through your big toe. So, if the force is coming from the wrong direction this is how you wear out your big toe and in turn get a bunion.

This is why it’s so important to treat the underlying cause of a bunion rather than accommodate it. This is also why bunion correctors don’t work you really need to control those significant physical forces by controlling the way you stand and walk!

Foot mobilisation therapy – An effective conservative management approach to avoid the need for bunion surgery!

So, the other main conservative therapy is foot mobilisation therapy. This is hands on technique combined with exercise therapy that improves the alignment and the function of the big toe/bunion area, and the foot and ankle. It treats the underlying function of the foot and ankle which affects the bunion and contributes to the bunion in the first place.

The big benefit is that it unlike the bunion correctors works to treat the underlying cause of the bunion. It also improves the overall function of the foot and ankle which is a huge factor in a bunion, not to mention a silver lining is that it helps a whole range of other things.

The key is to try to treat the underlying cause of the bunion asap so that you can avoid the need for surgery. Even if you don’t have pain its important to get on top of a bunion so that you can avoid bunion surgery.