Corns are a common problem on the feet and there is only one way to get rid of them permanently and that is to get rid of the cause of them. Corn remover pads do not get rid of them. Corns do not have roots that they grow back from after removing the hard skin.
Corns are nothing more than a normal reaction of the skin when there is pressure on an area. An example is the calluses that you may develop on your hands if you chop a lot of wood – its a natural process that the skin uses to protect itself. What happens with a corn is what is causing that pressure continues, so the thickness of the skin keeps getting thicker. If the pressure is over a smaller area, especially on a toe, then that painful thickened skin is called a corn. Obviously, when you stop chopping wood, the thickened skin stops growing and goes away. If the pressure that is causing a corn is not removed, it will keep growing and become more painful. Eventually the skin may breakdown as a result and an infection might develop.
Using the corn removal pads just burns and eats that buildup of dead skin and does not take away the cause. Podiatrists are really good and skillful at debriding or removing all of a corn and the hard skin that makes it up. Unless they also takes steps to remove the cause it is going to come back again at some point. It will not be because they did not take the ‘root’ out. If that corn won’t go away, then that is becasue that cause of the higher pressure is still there. It is not because the Podiatrist did not do a good job at debriding it!
The higher pressure on an area could be there for a number of reasons. Your shoes could be too tight and that increases the pressure on your toes. You may have a hammer toe and that is going to increase the pressure on the top of the toe. There may be a bunion, which is an enlarged joint which will cause more pressure. Under the foot, a corn could develop over a metatarsal head due to the different lengths of the metatarsal bones. There are any number of other reasons for these areas of increased pressures.
What can be done about those high pressure areas to get rid of corns permanently? The higher pressures need to be reduced. Make sure your shoes are fitted properly and there are no pressure points. Pads may be used to get pressure of things like a hammer toe. Often surgery can be done to correct a hammer toe or remove some bone under a corn to reduce the pressure. The best advice is to talk to a podiatrist about what the options are to reduce the pressure to stop the corn being a problem. Sometimes it is not possible to reduce the pressure for a number of different reasons – in these cases the only option is regular debridement from a Podiatrist.
