Bone Growth On Top of Foot
A bone growth on top of foot is an annoying but non-dangerous problem to have, luckily there are some treatments designed to handle it! This guide focuses specifically on the problems known as a metatarsal cuneiform exostosis.
Causes of Bone Growth on Top of Foot
- A very high foot arch (aka Cavus Foot).
- Increased mobility or hypermobility, essential a “loose joint”.
- Irritation of the joint due to poor biomechanics.
- Genetics or family history
- Prior injury or broken foot
Symptoms of Bone Growth on Top of the Foot
- Very hard bump on top of the foot.
- It rubs the skin against the top of your shoe.
- Difficulty finding shoes that fit properly
- Numbness, tingling or burning may be associated to this problem.
Muscle Knot On Top Of Foot:
It is also possible to have a muscle knot on top of the foot.
- This could be due to the extensor digitorium brevis.
- This is a ball of muscle on top of your foot.
- It is responsible for pulling your toes up.
- It is on the middle outside part of your foot, just before the ankle.
Knot on Top Of Foot Symptoms:
- Swelling or bruising on the suspected region.
- Difficulty pulling the toes up.
- Push on the muscle knot with your finger, if painful this is likely.
- If it is bone, the knot on top of your foot will likely be on the inside top of the foot.
Associated Bone Growth On Top of Foot Neuritis:
A Medial Dorsal Cutaneous Nerve Neuritis can occur.
This leads to a sensation of numbness burning or tingling. For more on this problem visit this link:
Top of the Foot Pain Complete Treatment Guide.
Home Treatment for Bony Growth
The main goal of treating this disorder is to take pressure of the prominence.
The second goal is to improve the improper biomechanics that are causing the pain in this area.
1)Reduce The Inflammation
This should decrease the numbness,burning and tingling in the foot if it exists. If you are not really in pain and experiencing numbness burning and tingling, then skip to the more permanent treatments.
A)Ice: Like anti-inflammatory medications and elevating your foot- using ice is not just about reducing pain, but about reducing inflammation! Icing will decrease inflammation in that area and allow the tissues to start healing faster. Ice works by slowing down inflammatory cells and then after the ice is removed, the blood flow increases and flushes away all the mediators and cells that you don’t want in the painful area.
B)Cool Water Baths: If ice is just too impractical or unpleasant for you, try using some cool water, put it in a foot bath and just soak your feet in it for 10-20 minutes using the same principles as above. Wait for your feet to adjust to the cool water and then finish your bath.
C)Elevation: Just like the Icing and the anti-inflammatory medication, this will help decrease the anti-inflammatory cells in the region. Just toss up your feet throughout the day on some pillows while watching TV and combine it with ice for best results!
D)Anti-inflammatory Medication: The goal of this treatment is not for pain relief! Most guys especially say they don’t need it for the pain or that it doesn’t even help that much, but this is to help your tissues heal faster, not so much for the pain relief. Anti-inflammatory medications like Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin or Aspirin all help speed up the healing process by stopping inflammatory cells in your body from further destroying tissues, they get stuck in a problematic cycle where they are trying to remodel the tissues but as the weeks and months go by they just never get there (because of weight, bad shoes, pregnancy or changing foot biomechanics).
E)Combined Ice/Cooling, Elevation and Anti-inflammatory medication: These three combined together have shown great results in research studies.
2)Offload the Bump
Padding – Any type of felt pad or gel pad will work, the goal is to prevent the foot from rubbing against the top of your shoe.
Skip Lacing – Lace up your shoes so that you skip the area where the bump on top of your foot is.
Limit your barefoot walking or walking without orthotics- walking barefoot flattens out your foot and compresses that joint.
Orthotics- get you hands on a good but still not expensive pair of orthotics such as powersteps ($25 or so)
Shoes: Properly measure yourself for your shoe using a Brannock Device at a athletic shoe store. Getting some extra depth shoes and skip lacing should be enough to avoid putting pressure on the bump.
For Bone Growth on the Top of the Front of the Foot: