HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
Turf toe is a common injury that takes place in sports. As the name indicates the injury happens frequently when an athlete is on turf. Playing on artificial turf seems to increase the risk of suffering from turf toe. This is likely due to artificial turf either providing not enough traction or too much traction. One will be making an explosive movement such as starting a sprint, accelerating, or making a cut and when they are in the toe off stage their foot will either get caught or slip. This causes the big toe to hyperextend backwards. It can also occur in other incidents that force the big toe backwards such as a blunt force.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SUFFER FROM TURF TOE
When you hyperextend the big toe the metatarsal phalangeal joint may be sprained. Turf toe is a sprain of this metatarsal phalangeal ligament. It will often be acutely painful and may swell up. It can be evaluated in a rehabilitation specialist’s office. By explaining the history of the injury to the specialist at Tauberg Chiropractic & Rehabilitation and through an in-depth examination the specialist should be able to diagnose turf toe without any imaging.
HOW IS IT TREATED?
Turf toe is often best treated with conservative rehabilitation. Conservative rehabilitation will include the POLICE or PRICE protocol. POLICE stands for protect, optimized loading, ice, compression, and elevation. PRICE is the slightly outdated similar protocol which called for rest instead of optimal loading. Essentially the toe will have the amount of loads that it can handle be incrementally increased. By load here I am referring to moving the toe. As the toe starts to heal it will be taken through rehabilitation protocols. Usually this will start with passive movement, followed by active movement, strengthening, and then restoring functional performance. When one suffers from turf toe in Fox Chapel & Pittsburgh it is often a good idea to either splint or tape the toe to help support the toe from hyperextending.
Call Tauberg Chiropractic & Rehabilitation today to schedule an appointment.