The outer edge of your foot is a common place to get corns. Your pinky toe area is also very susceptible.

This is because the entire area is flexible and is exposed to a ton of pressure when you walk.

In this corn removal, I take out a corn a few cm's under the pinkie toe. It was nice and dry and popped out easily.

It wasn't hugely painful at this stage but would have been in a few weeks.

This foot corn was probably just on the edge of home treatment. You'd have to be dedicated, however.

You'd need some Gehwol Fusskraft and a good file! 

Have you ever wanted to ask a Podiatrist (a question)?

​Most calls I get center around one of a few conditions: fungal nail infections, corns and ingrowing toenails. 

Coming to think of it, most emails too!

Anyways, as part of a new feature I'm going to post queries I get via email.

​I will of course ensure these remain anonymous.

(I'll also edit for clarity)

Here we have an almost perfect example of a pinky-toe corn.

An early one. One before it's dug really deep. In other words, one that is probably home treatable.

(To be fair that's why this corn removal was so easy, I had to slow the video down)

I carved it out one-handed (my Go-Pro is metaphorically in the post), so please forgive any jitters.

First off, I wanna apologize for the weird change in lighting half way through.

I'm still new to this and am getting a Go Pro soon (instead of using my phone).

Plus, I'm doing this scalpel work one handed lol.

Anyways, this was a long-standing hard corn on a elderly patient's heel. It had a thick layer of dome-like skin callus on top - almost like a cap.

I had to be very careful with this as too much force, too fast, and you're risking a skin tear or worse.

​This had to come off first as I wouldn't be able to tell where the actual corn began. It was probably as much this hard skin as the foot corn causing pain in this case.

​There was so much pressure on her heel on a regular basis that you had a double whammy. A corn growing in and hard skin growing out.

Removing this sole of foot corn was trickier than it looked!

(It didn't need as much wrist muscle action as this one though!)val) Enjoy!

After a summer full of hiking, look what we have here.

A corn right on the back of my heel. 

You can stop this before you have to cut it out. If you find yourself with one, do the following:

Apply Gehwol Fusskraft Blue over several days. A big healthy thumb full and let it sit each night undisturbed. 

After about three days, do the above and grab a trusty foot file, like this one. 

Nimbly file away until the rough yellow stuff goes — and before the bleeding starts!

The tiny toe that gets big abuse. A painful pinky-toe is the foot-finger I treat the most — and it's no wonder.

Tight shoes, your BMI and four fat digits bully the baby one. 

Sat down in the South Pole of your body, it's a warning beacon for potential threats. ​Hazards such as unstable ground, a kick too hard and....baseboards. 

​The drawback with these keen soreness sensors is the reason for pinky-toe pain can be tough to tell.  ​
​
​​Not to mention, it's not exactly easy for you to get a good look...

Most people come to me for skin-related foot problems. By that, I mean warts, foot corns and callus. 

I've written about corns vs warts before, but what about with skin callus added to the mix?

​​All three are ugly and uncomfortable. They're also tough to tell apart. ​​

This confusion means you waste money on useless remedies. ​You limp on and on, ashamed to bare your sole. 

​So, here's a pro guide on wart vs callus (including pinch callus on toes).

You'll soon know the difference — and how to treat them!​

After my post on the price of ingrown toenail surgery, I thought I'd touch on corn removal surgery cost. 

A lot of you wonder about this. People assume that due to the pain, they're going to be super-expensive to banish. 

You'll be relieved to hear this isn't the case! The vast majority will be walking with a spring in your step after one appointment. 

But this doesn't mean you'll never have trouble with your corn again... 

In shoes that squeeze, does every step pinch your pinkie toe?

Have you got hard skin there that hurts when you press down on it?

Do you get instant relief when you're free of footwear? 

Sorry to break it to you, but you may be the owner of a corn on your pinky-toe. ​The little digit is prone to pick up them up.

They throb, oh do they throb, but they aren't too hard to get rid of — and keep away. 

This foot pain chart focuses on bottom of your foot ache.

After all, your sole is the veneer between your delicate body and the cold, cruel ground. 

(And is, without doubt, the foot part I treat the most)

Loaded with bones, nerves and flesh; there's a lot to go wrong. ​​

So from stretched heel tendons to fat angry toe nerves, these conditions are the ones that I see often.​

I love curing corns. It gives instant agony relief.

Someone who hobbled along 20 minutes ago — suddenly walks with a spring in their step.

But why are corns so painful?

I get asked this a lot, and I understand why. ​

Well, you requested, I delivered. ​Here's why corns hurt so much

(And what you can do about it)​

Ah, pinky-toe pain. 

It can be from something mundane like chafing, to the more exotic e.g. an accessory toenail. 

Hard corns happen here, too. 

But there's another, more hateful, explanation. One that'll force you to switch your Fendi's for flip-flops.

​(Or how about toilet roll 'tween your toes or slippers 24/7? I've seen both).

I am, of course, referring to the infamous soft corn aka heloma molle. 

​And if you ID one early, you can save an expensive visit to the Podiatrist.  ​​

Smoker's corns are notoriously difficult to treat. ​Surgeons often refuse to operate on these neurovascular corns. 

There's next to no medical literature why they're so different (to normal corns.)

​There's debate in the Podiatry world about whether they actually exist (they do). 

​​They cause exquisite pain, bleed — and come back much faster than normal. ​

If I had a dollar (or pound) every time I hear: 

"I think I've got a wart on my foot, but it may be a corn". 
"I've filed this bit of skin on my foot for months, and it's not going".

A corn vs wart can be tough to tell, one of the many types of each causes sole of your foot pain.

And a positive ID is crucial to get rid of it — for ever.    

​So how do you know?

Here are five quick ways to tell the difference (or at least lead you in the right direction!)

The most painful corns are between toes. ​

​​With soft corns between toes, there's no escape. They face pressure from two sides from squeezing tight footwear. 

The good news is that soft corns, like all foot corns, respond great to changes you can make.

The life of a Podiatrist isn't all glitz and glamor. It's not all wrecked shellac nails and Taylor Swift's bunions.  

Foot corns are my bread and butter — and a huge source of bottom of foot pain. 

Now, these pictures of corns are what I see every day. 

​I also get asked a ton: What does a corn look like after it's removed?

(You know when you take a stone out of your foot after hiking? Like that)

​​So to satisfy demand that I didn't know existed, here are some foot corn images. ​

I've also added some before and after pictures of corns on feet.

Ah, seed corns, those picky little plugs of ingrown skin.

Now being a Podiatrist is never dull. One minute, I'm looking at fungal shellac nails.

The next I'm straining to see the evil sesame's aka seed corns.

Seed corns are caused by dry friction — and often appear as a cluster. They can be tough to tell from plantar warts. 

Now for some, they're an occasional nuisance. But for others, seed corns equal a stab pain every step.

​(Oh btw, they can also be the beginning of big, badder corns). ​

​But now for the good news: compared to other corns, the seed variety are way easier to home cure. ​​​

This means with a bit of patience you can save a fortune going to see a podiatrist.​