Treat Foot Pain / Morton’s Neuroma With Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT)
With Chiropractor in Los Gatos, San Jose, SF Bay Area, CA
What Is Morton’s Neuroma?
If we all just lived at Yoga Source in Los Gatos, we would be bare foot and spreading our toes daily but this isn’t the case. We live in the hustle and bustle of the San Jose area using tight closed toe shoes and this can set the stage for foot problems like Morton’s neuroma.
Morton’s neuroma is an inflamed nerve in between two (metatarsal) bones in the ball of your foot. It is often caused by narrow shoes pushing the third and fourth metatarsals together and causing irritation of the nerve. There can also be a tractioning of the nerve from nearby fibrotic tissue. The result is pain and numbness of the involved toes. It might even feel like you have a rock or lump in your shoe.
Shockwave Therapy For Foot Pain And Morton’s Neuroma
By the time Morton’s neuroma is felt, the problem has taken months to evolve and there is a thickening of the tissue around the nerve. This is where extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) comes in. ESWT is known to decrease adhesions and thereby decrease the thickness of the affected tissue. The the desired result is the space between the bones is returned, inflammation is decreased and the nerve is no longer being irritated.
“Patients (with Morton’s Neuroma) receiving ESWT exhibited significantly decreased VAS (pain) scores 1 and 4 weeks after treatment [1]”
“And in a 2009 study, extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) was also found to decrease pain in people with Morton’s Neuroma [2].”
Here Dr. Adam Fields of San Jose, CA demonstrates the use of ESWT for helping Morton’s Neuroma.
One of the great aspects of the Piezowave 2, which we have in our Los Gatos office, is that you will feel the machine working. You will have a sensation in the area being treated and, if there is no chance that you will be helped, we will know it on the first visit. You will, simply, not feel any tingling, pulsing or pain with the treatment.
Morton’s Neuroma & Complementary Care To ESWT
- Use a toe spreader like Yoga Toes
- Stop using overly narrow shoes
- Stop high heeled shoes
- Scale down activities that flare-up pain
- Do self massage
*NOTE: Many will say to take anti-inflammatory medication or to ice the area. When being treated with ESWT, it is better to avoid these. Inflammation is part of the healing process and will, eventually, decrease with shockwave therapy.
You can reach Dr Adam Fields for in-person (Los Gatos and San Jose, California) or telehealth appointments here.
About Chiropractor Dr Adam Fields
Dr Adam Fields is a practicing chiropractor in the Bay Area in Northern California and helps people daily in his office with many challenges that can be helped by shockwave therapy from tendinopathies, arthritis, cartilage regeneration, post surgical scar tissue, pelvic pain, altered biomechanics and more. He uses Endonasal Cranial Adjusting, the Muncie Technique, Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT), Class IV Laser Therapy, posture correction, lifestyle modification, muscle work, and other techniques to help his patients.