On average, we stand about 5 hours a day on our feet and take about 10,000 steps a day. All this standing and walking puts a lot of stress on your feet. Your feet are a very complex design; they are built to absorb the shock of each step you take and to constantly take our weight. However, overuse can lead to medical conditions and injuries, both of these can result in pain in the top of your foot.
Each of our feet is made up of 26 bones and 33 joints and are bound together by over 100 ligaments, muscles and nerves. This is why it can be tough to diagnose the condition that you have in your foot. With so much going on in your foot, it is vital that you go to a foot doctor in order to get the diagnosis and then the treatment that you need to alleviate your pain. Below, we are going to have a look at a few symptoms and the common conditions that can cause top of the foot pain to try and help you see when it is time to see your foot specialist.
Symptoms to look out for
Pain in the top of your foot can sometimes be the only symptom that you experience. However, there are others that are common with certain conditions. Some of these symptoms are:
- Swelling
- Redness
- Warmth at the site of the pain
- Tenderness
- Difficulty standing or walking
- Pain that gets worse as you stand or walk, this will likely decrease with rest
The common causes of top of foot pain
There are a lot of causes of top of the foot pain and without seeing a foot doctor to get a proper diagnosis, it can be very difficult to know exactly what is causing you the pain. In the bullet points below, you can see a few of the more common causes of top of the foot pain.
- Sprain or strain
- Stress fractures
- Ingrown toenail
- Bone spurs
- Tendonitis
- Improper footwear
- Ganglion cyst
- Ageing
- Gout
- Pregnancy
- Hormonal imbalance
- Medication
- Nerve entrapment
- Hammer toe
- Diabetes
What should you do?
If you think that your foot pain is being caused by any of the conditions above, you should go and see your local foot doctor as soon as possible. You can make an appointment with your local GP instead. However, they will likely send you to a foot doctor in any case, and so if you are concerned and would like to start getting the treatment you need quickly, go directly to your foot doctor. If you think that your foot pain is caused by a stress fracture, gout or one of the other more serious conditions on the list above, go straight to your local A&E department.
If you would like to find out more about the common conditions that we mentioned above then you can on our blog. We have plenty of articles related to the conditions that cause top of the foot pain, the symptoms and the treatments available for them. We hope that this article has helped you understand what could be causing the pain in the top of your foot.