A broken toe is a very painful ordeal to go through and requires immediate medical attention in order for the toe to heal properly. If a person fails to get the proper broken toe treatment, it can lead to a lot of serious complications and issues in the future. Applying the correct broken toes remedy is very important in the healing process, and if administered properly and with due care, you can make a rapid recovery and be back to your best in no time.
The broken toe treatment that you choose to administer obviously depends on the severity of the injury and the intensity of the pain that you experience, and the best possible solution in most cases is to visit a doctor. He will carry out accurate broken toes diagnosis, and suggest the best possible broken toe treatment for you. You need to be concerned if you are regularly experiencing toe pain at night.
Minimize Physical Activity
No matter what form of treatment for broken toes the doctor recommends, it is likely that you will have to live with the broken toe pain for a few weeks. Every time you walk, there will be some degree of strain on the toe, and as a result the pain will be unavoidable. The best solution for you to avoid this pain is to reduce the amount of physical activity you carry out to a bare minimum. Your toe will need a lot of rest and a fair amount of time to recuperate, and any stress that you put on the toe will only aggravate the injury further.
Get someone to take care of you and try and avoid getting up and moving around as much as possible. The bone needs some time to be reset back into its original place, and the longer this process takes, the more pain you will have to endure. Put all your plans on hold and just take it easy for a couple of weeks. Along with other forms of broken toe treatment, this period of rest will help you make a complete recovery.
Broken Toe Causes and Symptoms
Broken toes are usually caused when some extreme force collides against the toe. In most cases, it turns out to be a stress fracture as a result of the toe stubbing against an extremely hard object. In some cases, if a heavy object is dropped on the toe it also results in a broken toe. Many athletes also routinely suffer from this condition and require some form of broken toe treatment in order to cure them. Read more on different types of bone fractures.
The appearance of the broken toe is easy to identify and the degree of pain that accompanies this appearance makes a broken toe a condition very hard to miss. It is normal for a broken toe to look deformed and bent in shape, and coupled with a great amount of bruising and swelling, it adds to the look of something is inherently wrong with the toe. Simply bending the toe generates a great deal of pain, and leads to a crippling and numbing feeling running up the entire leg.
Visiting a Doctor
To try and administer some broken toe treatments at home all by yourself is not a very good idea. Immediately visit a doctor is highly recommended as he can then take some corrective measures. He would first take an X-ray of the toe in order to assess the damage, and then he would tell you what needs to be done. In extreme cases, he will set the bone right physically and then place the toe in a cast or in a similar apparatus that is meant for correcting the position of a broken toe.
Once you have reached home you are obviously expected to maintain a few days or weeks of rest. Along with this, it helps if you keep your foot raised at an elevated level at all times. Also placing your foot in an ice bucket greatly helps the healing process. But before you do this, you must ensure that there are no huge pieces of ice in the bucket that will collide against your toe and cause more pain. Some painkillers will also be administered to you by the doctor so that you can get some relief from the pain, albeit temporarily. Broken toe healing takes some time so you need to be patient with the broken toe treatment that you are employing. Read more on broken toe healing time.
As time progresses and the broken toes recovery period passes by, you will need to make a few more visits to the doctor so that he can reassess your situation and suggest suitable measures that you can take. You must also make it a point to wear the right kind of footwear so that there are no relapses of the injury.
On average, a broken toe takes around 5 weeks to recover from. This is the time taken if proper measures are taken and any kind of stress is not allowed to fall on the toe. Whatever form of broken toe treatment that you have received, be it surgery, splinting, buddy taping (where a broken toe is taped to another toe), or just a period of bed rest, you need to be patient and let the treatment take its time to have the desired effect. Rushing the recovery process will only be harmful in the long run.
Tiffany is a Medical Student and also works as a fitness coach in part-time. She is also a writer and writes on health and fitness articles. Tiffany loves to engage with users and help them provide various useful information on General Health. She provides researched-based information and also featured on various blogs and magazines.