We’ve talked about cosmetic foot surgery on this blog before, but a new report out of New York has once again made the surgery a hot button issue.
Manhattan podiatrist Dr. Oliver Zong specializes in treating foot pain through cosmetic surgery. He’s heard a variety of reasons why women want to go under the knife, from wanting to have sexier looking legs to longing to fit into their favorite pair of shoes. He’s happy to perform the surgery, which is becoming known as the “foot facelift”.
“A lot of times it was patients wanted to get into you know fashionable shoes, and things of that sort, or it was the result of wearing fashionable shoes too long,” Dr. Zong said.
Although he’s happy to acquiesce to the needs of his clients, Zong says the shoes you see on the runway aren’t designed to be worn for an extended period of time.
“Your Jimmy Choos, your Christian Louboutins, those sort of shoes, shoes generally not made for the normal foot,” Zong said. “So what ends up happening is if your foot type doesn’t match that shoe type often times your foot will take on the shape of that shoe, and that is where the foot deformities occur.”
When you step back and look at the big picture, it appears to be a dangerous cycle. Women are paying thousands of dollars to have dangerous and painful surgery to fix the deformities they caused by wearing ill-fitting heels.
Belinda Cozier-Fingal said she underwent the operation because the shoes she wanted to wear put stress on the wrong part of her foot.
“There is absolutely no flesh there. It was just bones projecting out,” Cozier-Fingal said. “I guess from wearing a lot of heels and pointed tip shoes because those were my favorite, pointed tip shoes. Those put a lot of strain on my foot.”
During surgery, Dr. Zong trimmed the bones in her toes and repositioned the fat to make the impact points of her foot more padded.
“I have one pair of stilettos that I really really like and I’m really hoping to be able to put my foot back in those,” Cozier-Fingal said. “Really hoping.”
The surgery isn’t for everybody, and many surgeons are speaking out against “foot facelifts”. Dr. William Speilfogel, director of the Foundation of Podiatric Medicine, said cosmetic surgery exposes patients to many unnecessary risks.
“Doing surgery just to fit into a pair of shoes I don’t think really is a wise decision,” Dr. Speilfogel said. “There is possibility of getting an infection, of pain, there is swelling.”
While Dr. Zong believes some high heels exacerbate the problem, he believes flat shoes can also cause arch and heel pain. He believes the perfect height for heels is “two and a half inches.”
Dr. Silverman comments
Dr. Zong needs to have his head examined.
One only needs to read the last line of the article to know that this is not a doctor with whom to hold any credibility. He said that very flat shoes can actually cause arch and heel pain, and the optimal heel height is about two and a half inches.
Now, I am routinely tolerant of others ideas in my blog, because being open to interpretation was part of my residency training. Accepting other opinions is important in lifelong learning. However, this doctor is for lack of a better term, “WACK”.
During the Ob/GYN portion of my training I delivered 10 babies into this world. None of the females had high heels on, and my own daughter wasn’t born with “two and a half inch heels”.
Where is that heel height recommendation in any respected literature? Where in the world does he get that from?
There is a mountain of literature that would claim otherwise. Furthermore, there is no line I have read in my religious studies that would suggest that God made women deficient and in need of a heel.
Let’s break this down further. Dr. Zong is the business of cosmetic foot surgery, and cosmetic foot surgery requires a clientele to come in requesting to get into heels. If he says heels are healthier, then he is encouraging his business.
Now, I am the last person to tell a woman not to wear heels. They look beautiful and there are many reasons why women wear them, but they should only be worn part of the time. Any rational woman will tell you that while certain Jimmy Choos feel comfortable, they certainly are not as comfortable as a pair of tennis shoes or flats. There is even evidence that flat, un-arched shoes are actually healthier for your feet.
I hope women read about this “doctor” so they don’t cause themselves unnecessary harm.
Related source: Fox New York
