By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Without any warning, you suddenly experience a sharp pain on the bottom of your foot.
Upon examination, you discover a corn: a small, deep formation of dry skin with a hard center surrounded by swollen skin.
Although a corn is deeper than a callous and more likely to cause pain, friction causes both of them to form.
Andrea May, owner of Andrea’s Foot Care in Rochester and a nail technician with advanced education in diabetic and geriatric foot care, explained that if a corn becomes painful, people should seek help from someone experienced in caring for these issues.
Despite the ubiquity of over-the-counter corn removal methods, “there’s very little that you can do at home because a corn is conical in shape, like an ice cream cone. It goes deep. It feels like you’re walking on glass or a stone. It can come on suddenly. I’ve had this experience. It was fine and seconds later there’s pain.”
Corn removal pads from drugstores typically contain salicylic acid to burn off the dead skin, but May warned that these can go too deep and harm healthy skin along with the corn. It’s also likely that the pads won’t entirely remove the corn or may even cause infection. A professional can remove the corn mechanically without damaging the healthy tissue near the growth.
“Moisturizers are always recommended but use those made for the skin on the feet, which is different from the skin on the rest of the body,” May said. “There are foot creams and foot lotions made specifically for the skin of the foot. Usually, the moisturizer itself is non occlusive so it won’t clog the pores. The foot doesn’t have oil glands. The foot moisturizes itself through sweat so we need to keep the sweat glands clear and open. Vaseline will clog those pores and cause problems.”
Corns develop to protect the bone from friction against the skin. May said that it’s nearly always tight shoes that cause corns. The footwear’s cost or newness doesn’t matter. They need to go if they cause pain, she said.
“If you’ve worn them for a long time and a corn appears, you’ll think it’s something else causing the corn. But they’re shoes that are worn out.”
Many people keep shoes as long as the uppers look good and without any attention to the soles. May challenges clients to look at the soles of their shoes as if they were car tires. Would they drive a car with tires that appear that worn?
She advocates replacing shoes about every six months if they’re used regularly. It’s also helpful to rotate among different pairs of shoes as they use different muscles of the feet and supply support differently.
“I recommend people try a larger size than they’re used to,” May said. “Get your regular size and try a half size larger and see if the half size larger is a little better. We think the shoes we have are great but as we age our feet tend to widen because of gravity.”
Check to see if the shoe slips on the heel and if it is tight against the toes. Good-fitting shoes should feel secure on the heel and allow room for toes to move.
Synthetic materials in socks prevent the feet from breathing and trap moisture against the skin. May said that contributes to friction, as do seams.
“There are more and more quality socks being made where the seam doesn’t rub,” she said. “If you’re ordering online, read the reviews. Talk with your friends. Quality socks can be expensive but they make good gifts.”