Guest whos_lulu Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 One of my friends who dances full-time with me has just had her foot put in a cast for four weeks due to the fact that she has a stress fracture in her second metatarsal! The Sports doctors thought that if they hadn't immobilised it completely, that it would fracture fully as it had been bothering her for about six months on and off. One of the reasons behind the problem (others being overuse and increased stress) is that her second toe is longer than her big toe causing the stress which should be loaded through the big toe en pointe, being put on her second toe. I was thinking if that is one of the main causes then won't it keep recurring after it has healed? Also is there anything that she could put in her shoe to increase the length of her big toe so it shares the stress? ...if you know what I mean...??? Any help whatsoever would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment
Administrators Victoria Leigh Posted July 14, 2003 Administrators Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Lulu, I moved this to YD because I think it's more of a technical issue than a pointe shoe issue. Mr. Johnson is more of an expert on this than I am, but I do recall hearing of a type of toe thing that is made by Gaynor Minden, I think, which you place on the big toe to make it more equal to the second toe. I know there are a lot of dancers who have this problem with the second toe, and I don't believe they all suffer from stress fractures of the second metatarsal, but Mr. Johnson should be here soon with more information on this! Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Thanks for the tipoff, Ms. Leigh! In my experience, stress fractures are most often caused by percussion, or the hard striking of the affected part against the floor. The force can also move up the bone structure to another joint which sounds like what happened here. There is a product called a Big Tip that fits over the big toe that works well for evening out the load-bearing to relieve the second toe from all the carrying. Not actually seeing the foot makes it difficult to recommend products, but some of my students have had success with them. She's fortunate that she's had sports doctors working with her. Stress fractures are the "sneaky petes" of ballet! Quote Link to comment
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