Many girls who start on pointe are scared that they will get bunions from doing pointe work. Pointe work will not ’cause’ bunions, however if you do have a family predisposition to bunions (check out your Mother and Grandmothers feet!) then wearing ill fitting shoes (whether they are street shoes or pointe shoes) may hasten their development.
People usually say that they have a bunion if they start getting a lump out at the base of the big toe. You can get a ‘pseudo’ bunion by the rubbing of the pointe shoe if the wings are too short and do not come up to the level of the big toe joint, or wear a very narrow box. This causes the toes to be squashed together, and the ball of the foot sits above the box, rather than being supported within it. Often picking a shoe with longer wings and a wider box will help reduce pressure on the area, and the irritation will subside…
A real bunion is when the end part of the big toe begins to angle in towards the other toes, and the knuckle of the toe (head of the first metatarsal) drifts away from the second metatarsal. The protruding piece of bone thickens and often gets red and irritated. Sometimes...