How Do You Know if a Toe Is Broken

If you stubbed your toe and felt a snap, you may wonder if it's broken, and you might recall that the "look and see" arroyo is the best course of action. Even so, a fracture that goes undetected and untreated can atomic number 82 to complications.

While not an emergency, it is vital that you lot get your toe checked out. Dr. Thomas Rambacher and the team at Podiatry Hotline Inc. recommend seeking treatment of your toe injury to ensure a swift recovery and to foreclose those potential problems.

When to suspect that your toe is fractured

Whether y'all've stubbed your toe or injured it playing sports, there are a few obvious signs that y'all've suffered a fracture. Look for discoloration, hurting, and swelling. While information technology's likely to injure immediately, it tin take a few days for the color to change and swelling to appear.

If you're sure your toe is fractured or you lot simply desire peace of mind, your Dr. Rambacher tin provide a full cess and order 10-rays to make the correct diagnosis.

A fractured toe that's left untreated tin can pb to infection

When it comes to broken toes, infection take chances normally happens if the skin on the affected toe is cut or punctured at the time of the injury. You're at increased risk of developing a bone infection if you have diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or a compromised or weakened immune organisation.

Symptoms that advise your toe has developed a bone infection include:

Fatigue
Fever
Pain
Warmth and redness of the toe

When dealt with quickly, a bone infection can be treated with antibiotics. If left too long, the infection can restrict blood circulation, leading to os death of that toe, septic arthritis, and an increased risk of developing skin cancer.

Osteoarthritis can develop from an untreated toe fracture

Osteoarthritis typically develops from vesture and tear of your joints over time, but walking on a fractured toe tin speed up this process — although it may still take months, or even years, for arthritis to develop.

Symptoms of osteoarthritis — pain, and stiffness in the toe, swelling in the joint and bug walking or playing sports — tin can exist hard to live with. Information technology's not unusual for a os spur to develop at the affected toe. This is a bony protrusion that can be painful, particularly when wearing shoes.

Treatment prevents complications

One time Dr. Rambacher has diagnosed your toe fracture, you have a few treatment options depending on the severity of the injury. Over-the-counter hurting medication and immobilization of the toe is often sufficient for small toe breaks and simple fractures. Dr. Rambacher can immobilize the toe by advisedly buddy taping information technology to the toe adjacent to it. A bandage usually is non required.

With more complex fractures, Dr. Rambacher may have to manipulate the pieces of bone back together again in a technique called reduction. This procedure is done under local anesthetic, and so your toe is numb. In rare cases, surgery may be necessary to fix a severe fracture using pins and plates to repair the bone and position the toe with the correct alignment for healing.

If you suspect that you accept a broken toe, or if you lot've fractured a toe previously and didn't get it checked out, don't hesitate to book a consultation with Dr. Rambacher today.