Walking for hours is no problem, but dancing – unfortunately – is. Until a year ago I could salsa dance for about an entire evening, at least three hours, without any problems. Before that I danced almost every night. For the past year, after an hour, I get stabbing pains under my right foot, ball of my foot. It doesn’t matter which dance shoes I put on.
Now I do have a bunion in the middle under that foot. Not very much, but still. I have been going to a pedicure for a year now. What else can I do? I like to keep dancing.
Corrie
Sepp Mortelmans, podiatrist
Dear Corrie,
I’m sorry that you are in such pain while dancing.
Very often this involves a pinching of the nerve between the metatarsal bones.
Dance shoes often have a (small) heel under the shoes, which puts more pressure on the forefoot. In addition, more pressure is generally put on the forefoot during dancing. This creates the risk that you will pinch your nerve at some point. This gives a stabbing pain, often with radiation to the toes.
With such complaints, we often initially look to support and correct the foot in daily life with podiatric soles. This generally gives the nerve a little more rest and often this is enough to be able to dance without pain. Sometimes a small adjustment in the dancing shoes is also looked at to relieve the nerve. As a podiatrist, we always try to find a solution in which people can continue to practice the sport they always do.
Feel free to make an appointment with a podiatrist in your area to see what your options are to be able to dance without pain again!
Yours sincerely,
Sepp Mortelmans
Head of Professional Development Department Podiatrist, MSU/sonographer
Do you also have a question? Then ask one of our experts. Always go to your doctor with urgent questions, the experts are not the right person for that. They also do not diagnose. The other conditions can be found here.
Sepp Mortelmans is a podiatrist for RondOm Podotherapists. He followed his training in Belgium and has been working in the Netherlands since 2011.
