Discomfort in the big toe joint in the foot is often because of arthritis. This commonly is known as hallux rigidus. There are lots of disorders in the big toe or hallux joint that might cause pain, with gout being another well known condition. At times the hallux joint is completely rigid and other times it's not necessarily rigid, it just has a lessened flexibility that is lower than what is considered normal. The most prevalent reason behind a hallux rigidus will be osteoarthritis in the great toe joint. The osteoarthritis comes from a lot of deterioration of in the hallux joint due to a alignment problem with just how the joint isn't going to move the way it really should. One other cause of the arthritis may be a one off (or perhaps a handful of) injury to the big toe joint that does certain harm to the hallux joint and trigger the osteoarthritis to start. Characteristically, the pain from hallux rigidus begins as a minor ache, sometimes having an occasional sharp shooting pain from the joint. As time passes, the hallux rigidus little by little worsens and can become rather painful. It is going to affect the manner in which you walk.
The treatment options of hallux rigidus are somewhat limited since there is no solution for arthritis. The initial strategy is management of the pain and this may possibly call for injection therapy in to the big toe joint along with the taking of pain medications. This is going to almost certainly effectively work for the short term however it is not likely to fix the condition. Footwear that are much more inflexible or have a rocker underneath the fotwear are helpful at decreasing the motion in this great toe or hallux joint, but still enable near to normal walking. There is also a graphite plate which could be placed in the shoes to make them stiff in order that whenever walking that big toe joint doesn't move. Foot orthotics will also be frequently utilized and may frequently have a rocker or another design function which ends underneath the big toe or hallux joint also to help minimize motion in the joint. You can also find some other type of pads that can be used and also strapping with the big toe joint which may also be used to restrict motion in the joint.
Surgery is another option that can be considered for hallux rigidus. There are various unique techniques that your surgeon could take. One is to simply stiffen the joint. This may certainly prevent the pain but will impact the method you walk about to some degree. It's still a good option. Yet another surgical technique would be to remove a bit of bone from across the hallux joint to permit it to move somewhat more easily. The third operative choice is to replace the hallux joint using an artificial one or put a spacer inside the big toe joint so the osteoarthritis on the joint surfaces is taken away and the two joints surfaces move on that spacer. The choice of which of these alternatives is something that the surgeon will have to make the decision depending upon how much deterioration was done to the big toe joint and exactly how good the bone throughout the big toe joint is and how deep the osteoarthritis should go.
