What Are Corns and Calluses?
A callus is an area of skin that has thickened in response to pressure or rubbing, usually on the ball or heel of the foot. A corn is the same process concentrated into a small point, often over a toe joint or between the toes, which is why a corn hurts more for its size.
What Causes Corns and Calluses?
Thickened skin is not a skin problem. It is the skin doing what it is meant to do where the load is too high or too concentrated, so the useful question is what is loading that spot.
- Footwear that presses on one area, or is too tight, too loose or too flat.
- The way the foot loads when walking, including excess pronation.
- A toe deformity such as a hammer toe or bunion, which pushes one spot against the shoe.
- A prominent bone under the ball of the foot.
Symptoms to Look Out For
Callus is often painless at first and becomes sore once it is thick enough to act like a foreign body under the foot.
- Hard, thickened, often yellowish skin over the ball or heel.
- A smaller, deeper, more painful spot in the case of a corn.
- A burning or bruised feeling underfoot after standing or walking.
- Skin that cracks at the heel edge where callus has built up.
How Are Corns and Calluses Diagnosed?
Your podiatrist examines the lesion and distinguishes a corn or callus from a plantar wart, which can look similar and is treated differently. The examination then looks past the skin to the mechanics: which part of the foot is taking the load, and why.
Conservative Treatment Options
Routine Treatment includes nail care and the treatment of corns and callus.
Often symptoms associated with biomechanical malalignment are treated with the use of custom foot orthotics. This device can help improve and reduce load on painful structures.
Removing the thickened skin relieves the pain quickly. Keeping it away depends on changing what caused it, which is where footwear advice, padding and orthoses come in. Cutting callus at home with a blade risks cutting into healthy skin, and this matters a great deal more if you have diabetes or poor circulation.
When Symptoms Persist
Callus that keeps returning in the same place is telling you something about how the foot loads. Where a toe deformity is pressing a spot against the shoe, treating the skin alone will not settle it, and the deformity itself is assessed. Manly Foot Clinic has a surgical podiatrist on site for the cases where that assessment leads to a surgical opinion.
Where the skin has broken down, or where you have diabetes or reduced circulation, a callus is not a cosmetic matter and should be seen promptly rather than managed at home.
Corns & Calluses FAQs
Routine Treatment includes nail care and the treatment of corns and callus.
Skin thickens where it is loaded. Removing the callus relieves the pain, but unless the pressure that caused it changes, through footwear, padding or orthoses, it will build up again in the same place.
Cutting callus at home with a blade risks cutting into healthy skin. This matters a great deal more if you have diabetes or reduced circulation, in which case the foot should be seen rather than treated at home.
They can look similar and are treated differently. A wart is usually more painful when squeezed from the sides than pressed straight down and often has small dark dots in it. Your podiatrist distinguishes the two at examination.
No, you can book directly without a referral. If you’d like, we’ll send a short report to your GP after your appointment so your foot care stays part of your overall health record. If your appointment is through a Medicare care plan, DVA or another funded program, you will need a referral, so check with us when you book.
Serving Manly and the Northern Beaches.
Manly Foot Clinic is at Shop 3/3 Corrie Rd, North Manly, NSW 2100, and treats corns and callus for patients from Manly, Dee Why, Brookvale, Freshwater and Balgowlah. The clinic is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.