Outside of the Foot Pain [Lateral Foot Pain]
Pain On Outside Of The Ankle [Causes, Symptoms & Best Treatment]
Pain On Outside Of Ankle: 95% it is one of these causes: Ankle ligament sprains, peroneus brevis & peroneus longus tendonitis, or sinus tarsi pain!

Look:
- Fifth toe pain usually has nothing wrong with the bone unless it has recently been broken. The pain usually results from pressure against the front of the shoe causing a callous or ingrown toenail.
- The fifth toe joint can cause a Tailor’s bunion to occur. This can also result in nerve pain and arthritis of the fifth toe joint.
- The bone connecting to the fifth toe is called the fifth metatarsal. It is possible to develop a stress fracture or “Jones” fracture.
- It is also possible to have pain along the tendons and nerves along the outside of the ankle from pressure against the outside of the shoe.
Click on the photo gallery to see descriptions!
Most common causes:
The most common causes of outside of the ankle foot pain are:
- An ankle sprain.
- Peroneal tendinitis.
- Sinus tarsi pain
- A broken Ankle.
Ankle Ligament Damage or Ankle Sprain:
Ankle Sprain Symptoms:
- This can cause instability.
- Usually after a traumatic twist or sprain.
- Inability to bend ankle in or out without pain.

Ankle Sprain Causes:
- Most commonly this is due to a sprain or twist of the ankle.
- This can be called a rolled ankle motion.

Ankle Sprain Home Treatment:
See below for our recommended products are located below:
- An ankle sprain requires a strong stability brace immediately after the injury. This will prevent future injury.
- If the majority of your ankle sprain pain has healed, a compression race can work really well after the first month or two.
- For long-term pain in great orthotic with a good supportive shoe is an excellent idea.

For More Specific Information:
- If you have a specific ankle injury, consider some of our following guides for ankle sprain pain.
- This can really help you out!
Sinus Tarsi Syndrome & Pain:
- This is the joint directly below the ankle joint.
- This can become very painful from pressure during the day.

Sinus Tarsi Pain Symptoms:
This is pain just below and in front of the outside ankle bone:
- This is more of an aching and burning pain that gets worse after standing for a long time.
- It can be worse in the morning after a long day.
- It can get tender at the end of long day, then be painful while in bed.
Sinus Tarsi Pain Causes:
- This pain occurs because the outside of the foot compresses against the outside ankle bone.
- When the foot gets fatigued, the muscles tire and the foot continues to turn out and grind against the ankle bones.
Sinus Tarsitis Home Treatment Options:
Read below for our recommended products:
- The best is a combination of a good supportive shoe, a supportive brace and full length orthotics.
- For low level pain, a compression brace can work wonders.
- If you have difficulty fitting your brace shoes, at the very least get a good supportive orthotic in a good shoe.
- Doing the simple step alone has changed lives in our clinic before!

Peroneus Longus Tendonitis:
- The peroneus longus tendon could lead to back across the back of the ankle and side of the foot.
- This muscle is responsible for pushoff with the foot and ankle stabilization.
- It can commonly be irritated in running.
Peroneus longus tendinitis symptoms:
- These can lead to soreness stretching up your leg.
- Numbness, burning and tingling.
- Pain up the side of the outside of your leg when you push down with your big toe joint.

Peroneus longus tendinitis causes:
- This is most commonly caused by people pushing off with the front of your foot.
- I have seen this most commonly in people who pushoff with their big toe and sprain the outside of their ankle.
- This radiates up the side of your leg almost to the outside of your knee.
Peroneus longus tendinitis home treatment:
Look at the products below for our recommendations:
- Probably the number one thing you want is a good supportive orthotic.
- We prefer a full length orthotics and good supportive running shoe.
- The second thing you want to do is modifying your activity, look for activities that cause you to pushoff with your big toe joint.
- Look at a good supportive compression brace.
Peroneus Brevis Tendonitis:
- The peroneus brevis tendon could lead to back across the back of the ankle and side of the foot.
- This muscle is responsible for push off with the foot and ankle stabilization.
- This is the muscle that you use for turning the foot out.
- It can commonly be irritated in running.
Peroneus brevis tendinitis symptoms:
- This usually leads to numbness, burning and tingling, radiating up the side of your leg.
- This is usually due to your foot twisting out to compensate for another injury.
- The outside of your ankle in the soft meaty is sore behind your bone (fibula).
Peroneus brevis tendinitis causes:
- This is most commonly caused after compensating for another injury.
- For example, if you have a sore knee or hip your foot would rotate out to take pressure off of the impact.
- Eventually the peroneus brevis gets really sore.
- This is also related to a tight ankle joint or hamstring.
Peroneus brevis tendinitis home treatment:
- The single number one thing is a good stability ankle brace.
- We also like a combination of the deep full-length orthotic.
- Consider a good supportive shoe or boot.
- If this is more of a chronic type pain, and you cannot fit your stability brace into your shoe, try a good compression brace.
A Broken Ankle:
- If you think you might have a broken ankle, you would likely have black and purple bruising. Next paragraph most the time he suffered a traumatic injury recently, or you had a really hard fall.
- The only way to really get a broken ankle without a traumatic injury, is to be very osteoporotic.
- This usually means that you are way over 65 years old, and likely hit menopause, or have a vitamin D deficiency.
- Or you even have some type of chronic disease which may be inhibiting your bone health.

Broken ankle symptoms:
- You will likely have suffered a traumatic injury.
- You will likely have dark or black bruising.
Broken ankle causes:
- This is almost always related with a traumatic injury.
- It is possible to have stress fracture, this would be if you have a medical condition such as osteoporosis or extreme stress.
Broken ankle treatment:
- The best thing to do is to get an x-ray, and to visit your podiatrist.
- You do need either cast or supportive boot.
- Once you heal, you can get a good stability ankle brace

Lesser Outside of the Foot Causes:
- Pain in the pinky toes can be caused by numerous factors.
- It can be caused most commonly by compression inside the shoe or a sprain or even a hammertoe.
A)5th Toe Numbness, burning or tingling:
- This most common after standing, walking or running.
- This is usually associated due to compression of the 5th metatarsal against the shoe.
- Consider wearing a larger shoe in the front.
B) 5th Toe Callus, Bump Or Corn:
- Calluses or corns can really cause pain!
- It is also very possible to sprain or injure your pinky toe.
- It you jammed it very hard, consider a sprain!
D)Bunionette:
At the front of the foot you can develop a bunion at the outside of the foot by the base of the toes.
- The pain can be relieved with 5th toe bunion padding & shoe accommodation.
- But in the end only surgery will permanently correct the deformity.
Outside of the Foot Home Treatment:
- If you have 5th toe pain, tailor’s bunion pain, outside of the foot pain or other lateral foot pain, this guide is for you!
- These are the recommended treatment products that will help you get better the fastest.
- The key is to stop your foot from turning outward and causing further damage to your foot.

The real key to fix outside of the foot pain in order:
1) Most important is a good shoe & a good insole for your shoe.
- Good shoes and good foot insoles are the best value and best long term option.
- This will stop your foot from turning outward.
- Give these 1-2 weeks of effort and you will really notice the pain relief.
- This does not instantly fix the pain, but prevents future damage.
2) Gel pad to offload the toe.
- This will give your toes some cushion to keep pressure off the toes.
- Read below to see the specific gel pads for each specific condition.
3) Ankle brace for the most possible correction.
- Check the recommended braces below.
- For ankle pain this is almost guaranteed to improve your problem
4)Menthol based cream for pain relief.
- Creams and gels like biofreeze act like ice but save you 20 minutes!
- Check below for our recommended pain relief options.
Best Treatment Products:
5th Toe Gel Pads:
- Fifth toe gel pads can stop your fifth toe or your Taylor’s bunion from rubbing against the side of your shoe.
- There are downsides because these don’t last forever, and they do start to break apart and develop older.
- They can be a low-cost option for tighter shoes during business meetings and at work.










Topical Pain Relief Creams:
- Menthol based creams have been studied medically and show safety and excellent results.
- This is best for nerve irritation.
- This can help with the nerve pain on the outside of the foot. Just don’t use this as your only treatment option.
- This is not fluff, these are scientifically backed!
- Bio-freeze is cost effective an shows great results.
- This is more for people who have difficulty sleeping or walking due to significant issues.








Massage & Ice Products:
- Ice is the an excellent option that can be safe for almost everyone.
- There are many nerves, ligaments and tendons on the outside of your foot.
- This can help calm the inflammation until you fix the biomechanics making your foot turn outward.
- There is some debate whether icing is worth doing, but for chronic pain this can help limit the need for medications and keep your options open.
- This works great for your arch, less for the ball of the foot.
- The more muscle and ligament tissue there is, the better ice will work there.






Massage Sticks:
- These can work great for loosening your muscles.
- More flexibility will make your foot turn out less.
- This is a very counter-intuitive way to take pressure off of the outside of your foot!
- This allows less tightness and pressure on the ball of your foot.
- This is very effective for the arch, the gastrocnemius or calf muscle and for the hamstring and thigh muscles.
- This also works very well for the gluteus muscles if you are having butt cheek or hip pain.






Best Shoes for Side of Foot Pain:
- Getting a great supportive pair of shoes will make sure that there is pressure removed from the outside of your foot
- This is especially important if you have a have flat feet.
- Consider shoes combined with a good supportive orthotic for best pain relief!.
- The following link will show you what our favorites are.
Best Orthotics for Side of Foot Pain:
- Orthotics are the single most important way to improve your outside of the foot pain, Seriously!
- Most people don’t think orthotics will fix their foot pain.
- Besides trauma, 95% of all 5th toe, middle of the foot and outside of the ankle pain can be improved with orthotics.
- This is because orthotics help your foot from twisting out and compressing against your shoe when you walk.
- Don’t take our word for it, read the reviews!
Most Important Tips For Orthotics:
- Make sure you have a roomy enough shoe.
- I’m warning you right now, don’t try to stuff a full length orthotic into a tiny tight shoe, it won’t work.
- If you have tighter or dress shoes: try the dress shoe or 3/4″ orthotics.
Full length orthotics give you the most correction and improvement:
- If you have roomy enough shoes like running shoes or work boots. Get a full length orthotic.
- They cushion under the front of your foot and prevent it from twisting out against the outside of your shoe as much as possible.
- These are one of the best possible options for medium and heavy duty correction!




These orthotics are for slimmer shoes, without laces:
- If you are tight in the front of your shoes, or the shoes are tighter, these 3/4″ might be the best choice for you.
- But if you have a choice, the full length orthotics are much, much more supportive!
- So if you wear work boots or running shoes, get the full length, they get you more support.






Dress Shoe orthotics:
- These are premium leather orthotic recommendations for dress shoes.
- If you have a tight dress shoe get the 3/4″ orthotic.




Outside of the Foot Trauma:
- If you think you might have a broken 5th metatarsal fracture, a Jones fracture , a stubbed or broken 5th toe, these products may be of assistance.
- This guide is meant for only after getting your foot evaluated by a foot and ankle specialist first!
- Always remember to see a foot and ankle specialist like a podiatrist if you are having severe outside of the foot pain or a broken bone!
5th Toe or 5th Metatarsal Injury Treatment:
- If you have a traumatic injury such as a broken 5th metatarsal fracture, a Jones fracture , a stubbed or broken 5th toe: consider protecting your foot!
- The best way to do this is of course to see your podiatrist and get evaluated with an x-ray, ultrasound and potentially even an MRI or CT scan.
- If you are unable to do so it may benefit you to be in a cast, fractured boot, or even keep the weight off of it with a rolling knee scooter or other protective devices.
- We as podiatrists frequently take patients off work for very long period of time when they suffer a traumatic injury, unfortunately there is no other way around us in labor jobs.
- If you have a sit down job there are ways to get people back to work quicker, but this can be very difficult otherwise.
Outside of the Foot Boot Treatment:
- There are pros and cons to using a boot to treat your outside of the foot injury. If you are immobilized too long the cons are that you will gradually become stiff and overworked to your other leg. The Pros are that you injured lateral foot will hopefully have a chance to gradually heal!
- Our favorite fracture boots and their supplies:










Offloading and Scooter treatment:
- Sometimes the best thing to do is to completely keep pressure off of the outside of your foot.
- In the early stages of the disease there are benefits to offloading and can give you outside of the foot relief!
- These are favorite knee scooters and walking devices:








Outside of the Foot Compression Brace:
- A good compression brace can stabilize your foot from turning outward.
- This prevents your foot from pronated.
- Pronated foot will turn your foot outward in your foot will rub on the outside of the shoe.
- For many of her patients this has solved their pain and is very comfortable to wear inside your shoe.
- This solves both pain and outward pronation for a relatively low cost.
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Outside of the Foot Stability Brace:
- Stability brace goes little bit further than the compression brace to stop your foot from turning out.
- At the same time this is a little bit bulkier and does not affect every shoe.
- We find people are little bit happier trying the compression brace before the stability brace.
Table could not be displayed.
Outside of the Foot Pain [Lateral Foot Pain]