See if this sounds like something you’ve had: Tingling toes like your foot’s fallen asleep, but no back pain, no buttock pain, no calf pain, and no ankle or foot pain.  Tingling is in the toes only, not in the foot, the leg or the butt–just toes.  Second and third, to be exact.  What the heck is that?

I just had a patient come in with these symptoms and it really looks to me like a Morton’s Neuroma.  A Morton’s Neuroma is a benign growth on a nerve primarily in the foot between toes.  It can cause burning at the ball of the foot, numbness and tingling, or both.  Usually the discomfort comes from the Neuroma being squeezed, often in tight shoes.

The treatment for this malady is to start by getting more loose fitting shoes.  Now that doesn’t mean “too big.”  It simply means avoiding narrow and tight fitting shoes.  I know, I know…it’s all about the fashion.  But if you’ve got a Neuroma, the pain or discomfort of constant tingling will make you think twice about the shoes.

You can also visit a chiropractor to get the muscles of the foot and calf worked out.  What that means is that the doctor can, with her hands, massage out the tight muscles in those areas.  A chiropractor can also evaluate your gait–that is, the way you walk–to see if you need to be fit for custom-made orthotics.

If it turns out that none of these conservative treatments work, then as a final resort, you can have surgery.  The Morton’s Neuroma surgery is not too bad.  One of my clients had it recently, and he was back on his feet in no time.  But the Frankenstein boot he had to wear during the healing process was definitely not fashionable.