The foot may seem at first glance to be an unusual place for cosmetic surgery, considering how far less it is subject to exposure and scrutiny than, say, the face, or areas like the abdomen that shape the contour of one’s body. Eventually, however, those shoes do have to come off, and when they do, a person’s feet can just as easily become objects to admire, if they are shapely, and revile, if they look like they’ve been involved in an accident. For women in particular, there are thousands of shelves of beautiful and potentially expensive footwear to be purchased, which demand a foot worthy to complement them. Aesthetic ideals aside, there are those of us who suffer from various foot conditions that may inhibit our ability to walk or to wear shoes at all, which may be corrected with the slice of a scalpel and a little surgical ingenuity.

This is not to say that everyone who is dissatisfied with her feet should rush out to their doctor and ask for, say, that nagging big toe to be shaved down. Unlike the face and other parts of a person’s body, the feet are unique in the sense that constant pressure is applied to them simply by the act of walking, not to mention the punishing effects of uncomfortable shoes like high heels. A person’s feet are designed and balance to manage and absorb this pressure and provide support for the rest of the body. An operation of any sort on the feet may disrupt these functions, making a person unstable and weakening vital foot structures that may in turn damage balance and alignment. As such, foot surgery for purely cosmetic reasons is discouraged by many doctors.

Good candidates for cosmetic foot surgery, then, are those who have deformities or other flaws on their feet that are truly unsightly and cause discomfort or pain. Bunions, for example, those awful bumps that one finds on the side or on top of the joints of the toes, can be removed by careful incision and removal from the side of the foot, so as not to create a visible scar. Likewise, hammer toes that have contracted painfully can be corrected and straightened out, with the incisions prior to adjustment made between the toes, again to minimize evident scarring. Extremely crooked toes, which may be the result of disease or injury, may be straightened out by adjustment of the toe bones, coupled with the shaving away of bone fragments to improve the alignment. The removal of growths or masses in general, if they inhibit free foot movement and the wearing of proper shoes, may require surgical treatment, to excise both the physical and the visual aspects of the deformity.

There are also patients who undergo procedures to shorten or shave down toes, to give them a slimmer, sleeker appearance, or to allow them to fit better in narrow shoes. To shorten a toe, an incision is made between the toes, and then a portion of the affected toe will be removed. A pin and surgical sutures will then be used to affix the remaining sections to their new position.

Foot surgeries, whether corrective, purely cosmetic or both, normally do not last longer than a couple of hours at the most. After surgery, the foot will be bandaged in a dressing that will facilitate healing and maintain the corrected position of the feet. The recovery period will be about two weeks, during which the feet will be elevated, and an ice pack applied to help with the swelling. Though patients can generally walk after the surgery, doctors recommend keeping activity involving the feet to a minimum while recovering, and may prescribe the use of special shoes during this period.