Bunion Surgery

I recently got an email asking if I’d used any over-the-counter bunion products to help with the pain before considering surgery. I thought that other people might be interested in my response.

Hi there,

I found your website and started reading it because I have bunions too. I don’t think mine are as bad as yours, but I may consider surgery down the road. Did you try any non-surgical methods for pain relief before considering surgery, and if so where did you get them?

Thanks,
Samantha

Hi Samantha,

Thanks for the email! I actually tried a variety of products before looking into surgery, as surgery was a last resort for me due to the time and the money. The first thing I tried was just basic moleskin padding in my shoes to prevent the bunions from rubbing against my shoes… it didn’t help much and came off too easily. I was also going through about two packages per week because you can’t reuse them. Then a friend told me about a reusable silicone pad she found. I tried that and it was much more helpful because it had a lot more cushioning. Because of the pain I had in my bones, I also tried silicone toe spacers which I mostly wore at night because I found them very uncomfortable to wear with shoes during the day. They help separate the big toe from the second toe, temporarily straightening your toe and relieving some of the pressure on the bunion. They helped a little bit, but my bunions were simply too bad for them to be up to the task. The few times I did wear them during the day, I did have less bone pain, but having something that felt like a marshmallow between my toes was too uncomfortable for me. By far the best results I got was from a night splint by FootSmart, which I bought online, and still do wear on my right foot. It helps with the pain more than anything else I’ve tried and to me is well worth the small expense. All of these products were in addition to having custom orthotics which were adjusted six times to try to help the pain, but to no avail. Ultimately, as you know, I decided to get surgery on my left bunion because I would rather fix the problem than wear squishy spacers and splints for the rest of my life, and hopefully get rid of the pain for good. If your bunions are not bad enough to need surgery yet though, definitely check out these products, as they are a very small cost and may be helpful to you.

Thanks!
Sylvia