Pain from the great toe or hallux joint that hurts while walking is mostly frequently as a result of osteoarthritis and is often given the term more frequently called hallux rigidus if the joint is very rigid or hallux limitus if its not too inflexible. Hallux rigidus is painful whenever walking, so if the joint is extremely painful while resting, it may well much more likely be gout symptoms than a hallux rigidus. Considering the hallux rigidus, while we are walking and the rearfoot starts to raise up off the floor, the big toe joint must move for this movement to occur. If that motion is restricted or there is a painful osteoarthritis in the joint, then that it is not really as simple to walk. It is logical that if that big toe joint hurts when walking, then a obvious way to help the pain sensation on movement should be to limit just how much the hallux joint moves.
There are lots of ways to do this. One particular way that Podiatrists use is with felt pads which can be put on the foot underneath the great toe and ball of the foot or taping may be utilized to strap the joint. Both of these are really good short term methods, however not practical in the long run. Should you need a foot orthotic for other reasons, there's an expansion that a Podiatrist could add on the front of the foot support which is referred to as a Morton’s extension which can be used to stiffen up the hallux joint by decreasing bending or flexion of the feet. Another way is with a carbon fibre insert plate which usually are under 1.5mm thick so they can fit easily into the shoe and therefore are very rigid. These types of carbon fibre plates are likely to be used to treat hallux rigidus as well as other conditions such as turf toe that require to restrict the movement of the big toe joint. The scientific evidence is that they are rather efficient at dealing the symptoms in the big toe joint in these problems. Another way to treat the pain from your osteoarthritis and hallux rigidus could be to just use shoes which might be more inflexible across the front foot. The more bendable the sole of a shoe is, the more that the big toe or hallux joint will flex and the much more likely it is to be painful when walking. There are a few types of footwear, particularly the Hoka running footwear, that have a rocker and further shock absorption built into them which are particularly beneficial at that. The effects from the rocker in these types of footwear would be that the great toe or hallux does not have to flex just as much as the foot moves forward over the rocker. A pedorthist or shoe maker could add a rocker to many different types of footwear to obtain the same thing.
Should you have hallux rigidus or arthritis in the great toe or hallux joint, there are options for the short term to deal with the discomfort and choices on the long term to manage the motion of the big toe joint that it is less painful.