With so many different bones in the ankle and foot, it’s pretty easy to see how acute trauma or repetitive stress can lead to one or more bone breaks in the area. If your foot starts hurting, you may try to do a self-assessment to determine the extent of the damage, and if you’re not careful, you may come to some wrong conclusions about the state of your feet. In today’s blog, we explore three common misconceptions about foot and ankle fractures so that you can determine the best way to care for your injured foot.
Misconceptions About Foot Fractures
If your ankle gets rolled up on during a football game or you fall while walking down the stairs, you may notice a significant pain in your foot and ankle region. Did you just break something, or is it just going to bruise? Let’s look at some of the mistakes people make when assessing whether or not they’ve broken a bone in their foot.
“I can walk on it” – One of the first things that many people do when working to determine if they broke a bone in their foot is to bear weight through the area and attempt to walk. It may be uncomfortable or even painful, but some people think that if they can hobble or walk on the area that they must have avoided a fracture. This simply isn’t true. It’s certainly possible that you can bear weight through the foot even if a fracture has developed, so don’t use this as the “end all, be all” test for determining if a fracture has developed.
“I can wiggle my toes” – Others believe that a fracture in the midfoot would disrupt their ability to bend their toes. In the vast majority of cases, the nerves and muscles that help you bend and move your toes are not affected by a fracture in the foot or ankle complex. Don’t use toe flexibility as a gauge as to whether or not you have a broken bone in your foot. However, if the toe bending is quite painful, there’s a chance that you did fracture a bone in your toe.
“There’s no swelling or bruising” – Again, because there are so many small bones in the foot area, and because many are pretty well protected, there may not be much bruising or swelling in the event that one of them is broken. The eye test to look for bruising or swelling isn’t a great gauge as to the extent of your foot injury. The opposite holds true too. We’ve seen some extremely bruised and swollen ankles that didn’t involve a fracture, and were in fact only the result of significant tears to the ligaments that support the ankle joint. Don’t assume that the absence of swelling means you avoided a fracture, and don’t assume that you must have broken a bone because the ankle is quite swollen and bruised.
If you want assistance getting a clear determination as to what happened to your foot and ankle, connect with a specialist in your area. Dr. Silverman has performed countless foot exams, and he’s confident he can help you understand what you’re facing. For more information about specific foot conditions or fracture treatments, click around on our blog!
