How Can I Tell if My Foot Is Broken
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Your human foot contains about 26 bones, and many of these bones are prone to injury. You can suspension a toe if yous kicking something, you lot can break your heel if y'all leap from a sure height and land on your anxiety, and yous can too break other bones when you twist or sprain your foot. Though children tend to break basic more often than adults, their feet are oftentimes more flexible than adult feet and they tend to bounce back more than quickly from a broken foot.
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Annotation if information technology is too painful to walk on your foot. The major symptom of a broken pes is overwhelming pain when you try to put any pressure at all on your foot or walk on your foot.[1]
- If you have a broken toe, yous can usually all the same walk and non exist in too much hurting. A broken foot will be overwhelmingly painful to walk on. Boots will often mask the pain of a break by providing a degree of support; removing them afterward a suspected fracture is the best way to diagnose the injury.
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Try to take your socks and shoes off. This will assist you determine if your pes is broken, equally you can compare your two anxiety adjacent.[2]
- If y'all cannot get your shoes and socks off, fifty-fifty with the assistance of someone else, you should go to the nearest emergency room or phone call 911. Your foot is likely cleaved and requires immediate medical care. Cut the boot and sock off before swelling amercement the foot.
- Typically if you suspension your foot, at that place'southward some type of trauma that goes along with that. For case, yous might have smashed it or stubbed your toe. However, a stress fracture is caused by a repetitive activity similar playing sports or even walking.[3]
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Compare your feet and expect for signs of bruising, swelling, and injury. Check if your injured foot is swollen, as well as the toes on that foot. Y'all can also compare your injured foot with your salubrious pes to see if it appears very red and inflamed, or has deep majestic and green bruising all over information technology. You may also notice open wounds on your injured foot.[4]
- If you have a significant break, broken blood vessels will cause bruising around the area.[5]
- Swelling is normal for most injuries. However, if you have a severe fracture, the swelling might exist so bad that it leads to blisters on your pare, considering the fluid doesn't take anywhere to get.[6]
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Check if the human foot is broken or only sprained. You lot tin can also try to determine if the foot is sprained or broken. Sprains occur when y'all stretch or tear a ligament, which is the tissue that connects two bones together. Breaks are a fracture or consummate intermission of the bone.[7]
- If yous meet whatsoever basic sticking out through the skin, you have an open fracture. Seek emergency medical care, equally this can chop-chop atomic number 82 to an injury.[8]
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Head to the nearest emergency room. If your injured pes appears to be broken, yous should head to the nearest emergency room. If you are alone and no one can assist you, phone call 911. Practice non drive yourself to the emergency room if you take a broken foot.[9] Any broken bone can crusade shock, which makes it too dangerous for y'all to drive yourself.
- If someone is able to drive you lot to the emergency room, you should try to stabilize your human foot so it is secure while you are in the car and does non motion around. Use a pillow and slide it under your foot. Secure it with tape or tie information technology to your pes so information technology helps your human foot to stay upright. Try to go on your foot elevated as you lot travel; sit in the back seat to elevate your foot if y'all can.
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Let the doctor examine your foot. The physician will press on several areas of your foot to decide if your foot is broken. Y'all may feel some pain every bit she does this, which is an indicator that the pes is broken.[x]
- If your foot is cleaved, you may feel hurting when the doctor presses on the base of operations of your babe toe and at the mid-pes. Yous may also exist unable to have four or less steps without assistance or without significant pain.
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Let the doc to X-ray your human foot. If the doctor suspects y'all take broken basic in your foot, she will do an Ten-ray on your pes.
- Still, fifty-fifty with an 10-ray it can be hard to determine if your human foot is cleaved as swelling tin can obscure the fine bones in the human foot. Using an X-ray, the doctor may be able to place which bones in your foot are broken and how they can be treated.
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Ask the doc nearly your treatment options. The treatment options for your broken foot volition depend on what bones you take broken in your pes.
- If yous have broken your heel or fractured your heel, y'all may require surgery. As well, if you have cleaved your talus, which is the bone that attaches your pes to your leg, you lot may require surgery. But if you fractured your little toe or other toes, you likely practise not require surgery.
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Stay off your human foot as much every bit possible. Once your broken foot is treated by a doctor, you should focus on staying off your foot as much as you can. Use crutches to go effectually and make certain you put your total weight on your arms, hands, shoulders, and the crutches, not on your foot.
- If you have a broken toe or toes, your cleaved toe may be taped to its neighboring toe to go along it from moving. You should put no weight on your broken toe and give it six to viii weeks to heal fully.
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Elevate your foot and apply ice to reduce swelling. Put your foot on a cushion in bed or on a high chair when sitting so information technology is higher than the rest of your body. This volition aid to keep the swelling downwardly.
- Icing your foot can also reduce swelling, especially if it is in bandages, non a cast. Apply the water ice for 10 minutes at a time, reapplying every hour for the first 10 – 12 hours of the injury.
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Accept hurting relievers, equally prescribed by your physician. Your doctor should requite you pain relievers or recommend over-the-counter pain relievers you can utilise to assistance manage the pain. Only have them equally prescribed by your physician or equally specified on the label.
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Schedule a follow up exam with your doctor. About foot fractures take half-dozen to eight weeks to heal. You should schedule a follow-upwards test with your doctor once you are able to start walking and putting weight on your foot. Your medico may recommend yous apply a rigid and flat-bottomed shoe to help your pes heal properly.
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What symptoms might indicate a broken foot?
Dr. Neal Blitz is a Podiatrist and Foot & Ankle Surgeon who runs private practices in New York City and in Beverly Hills, California. Dr. Rush is "The Bunion King®" and is the creator of the Bunionplasty® Procedure (plastic surgery for bunions) which has revolutionized bunion surgery. He has over 17 years of podiatric experience and specializes in minimally invasive pes and ankle surgery. Dr. Blitz received his DPM from the New York Higher of Podiatric Medicine, then completed a residency focused on Elective & Reconstructive Foot & Ankle Surgery at the Swedish Medical Center, and was awarded an AO Trauma fellowship in Dresden, Deutschland, focused on trauma and reconstructive techniques. He is board certified in Human foot Surgery and Reconstructive Rearfoot & Talocrural joint Surgery and is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Pes & Ankle Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Human foot & Ankle Surgeons (FACFAS).
Board Certified Podiatrist
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That will depend on the severity of the fracture. For a stress fracture, yous might have dull pain, swelling, and bruising. More than severe breaks might lead to swelling that'due south significant enough that it causes blisters on your peel. Some breaks might fifty-fifty pierce through the skin, which is considered a medical emergency.
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Article Summary X
The all-time way to tell if your pes is broken on your own is to assess the level of pain you're experiencing. If you feel immediate, throbbing hurting deep in your foot or coming from the os, your pes could exist cleaved. If you simply have pain coming from the softer tissue in your foot, not the bone, your human foot might actually be sprained and not broken. If the pain gets worse when you lot move your foot, put pressure level on it, or touch information technology, that's another red flag that information technology could exist broken. Yous can typically walk on a sprained human foot, but usually not on a broken pes. A broken foot may besides look bruised and bloated, and sometimes information technology will await visibly deformed. If you're worried that your foot is broken, y'all should get to the emergency room for immediate intendance. For more tips from our Medical co-author, including how to ice your broken foot for pain and swelling relief, continue reading!
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