Many people suffer from painful corns and callus. They can be very debilitating and effect the way we walk and can eventually lead to knee, hip and back problems due to altering the way you walk to protect the painful area.
Corns are small areas of hard skin that develop as a result of friction and pressure either from poorly fitting footwear or some form of foot deformity such as clawed toes, bunions etc. There are three types of corns:

Hard Corn (Heloma Durum )
Hard corns are generally found on top of toe joints or underneath metatarsal heads and they can feel like you are walking with a stone in the shoe.

Seed Corn (Heloma Millare)
Heloma millare generally found in little clumps on the plantar (bottom) surface of the foot usually around the metatarsals but sometimes on the heels and midfoot and they look like small seeds and again can feel like walking with a stone in the shoe.

Soft Corn (Heloma Molle)
Heloma molle exclusively found in-between toe spaces, usually between the 4th and 5th toes but can be found between all toes. These corns can be very painful and difficult to treat in one session due to the close proximity of toe joints rubbing together, generally padding between the toes and a change of footwear can prevent recurrence. The name soft corn comes from the macerated (soft and soggy) appearance of the area that doesn’t get chance to dry out due to the closeness of the adjacent toe.

Callus
Callus is more of a thickened layer of hard skin, again as a result of friction and pressure but generally over a broader area.

The short term/pain-relieving treatment of corns and callus is usually physical removal of the hard skin. Long term relief comes with review and improving style and fit of footwear or with simple insoles that spread the distribution of weight across the foot. Occasionally functional orthotic devices can help if it is necessary to change the biomechanics of the foot.

Verruca are warts on the foot. They are generally on the sole but can be found elsewhere on the foot. They are caused by HPV, Human Papilloma Virus and usually go of their own accord after 2 to 3 years (particularly with children). The HPV virus is particularly good at hiding from the immune system due to its low number of T cell receptors (the receptors that the antibodies attach to), this can cause it to remain undetected by the immune system for years and can make it hard to treat, particularly in adults. Verrucas are generally caught from communal changing areas.

For painful or stubbornly persistent verruca, there are a number of treatment options but no single treatment is 100 per cent effective.

I recommend using flipflops in any communal changing or showering area and to the side of the pool if you go swimming. Also, remember that you can also catch them when you go on holiday.

This is the removal of the toenail using local anaesthetic. There are a few options available, the nails can then be left to grow back or a strong acid (phenol) is used to destroy the nail bed to prevent regrowth.
After an assessment a decision can be made to either remove the whole nail (total nail avulsion) or a small section of the nail (partial nail avulsion) to leave the larger part of the nail intact.

Nail surgery is generally a last resort but very often a long term solution to problematic and recurring ingrowing or painful nails.

Wilde Pedique is a wonderful way of improving the look of a thickened, damaged or fungal nail. It is a temporary measure lasting between four weeks to four months offering partial or complete nail reconstruction. This LCN procedure is a unique light cured system developed exclusively for the restoration and correction of the toenails.
The odourless, flexible resin will not discolour and comes in six shades to tone to the original nail colour. Once applied, it grows with the natural nail and just requires refilling every 4/6 weeks until the nail has grown fully. It is suitable for anyone with nail conditions such as mycosis (fungal nails), trauma, onychauxis (thickened nails) etc. LCN Wilde Pedique can even be used with anti-fungal treatments and after nail surgery once the site has healed.
Nails varnish can be applied and removed without damaging the nail, which also can be cut and filed.

Call City Park Podiatry to find out if this treatment will help you achieve natural healthy-looking nails.

Ingrowing Toenails (Onychocryptosis) can be very painful, they can be caused by ill-fitting shoes, trauma, poor nail cutting technique or the shape of the nail (hereditary factors). A true ingrowing toenail is where a nail spike grows into the skin at the side of the toe and becomes infected. The body tries to fight the infection but as the nail is constantly pushing through the skin, the infection never heals and it leads to swelling and an overgrowth of tissue (granulation). Antibiotics can mask the infection but when they are withdrawn the infection usually resurfaces.

Generally, treatment is of a conservative nature where the offending nail “spike” that is digging into the skin is removed as gently and painlessly as possible. In some cases, this is not always possible to achieve due to the build-up of granulation tissue, the presence of bacterial infection, the sensitivity of the toe and the accessibility of the nail spike. This may then have to be treated with the use of local anaesthetic.