Toe Injury?

[maripossa24]

Hello there,

I've recently begun swing dancing. I've learned basic single step ECS, and am now learning the triple step. I've been dancing about one-two times a week over three months. About a month ago, a full week after my last dance session, I noticed the lateral side of my big toenail hurt. Pretty bad. It was sore to the touch, and sore without touching it. I had polish on my toes, but the pain was so hard to ignore, I decide to take off the polish and have a look. One whole half of my toenail was black and blue. I can't remember dropping anything on my toe, or any other trauma. I figured it was the dancing. Can dancing cause this?

It stopped hurting, then two weeks later I was at another dance class. a couple of days later, my toe is sore in the same spot again. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose the nail (gross!). I don't think I'm putting any weird pressure on my toe in that spot specifically. I've googled it, but all I come up with is runners toes. I don't run. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

[waltzgirl]

Unless somebody stepped on you (or you stepped on yourself--I've done that several times :D), it sounds like perhaps your shoes aren't right for dancing. You do put a lot of pressure on your feet dancing and if your shoes are too tight or rub, dancing will make the effect even worse.

[Chris Stratton]

This happens to me once every few years, typically at a competition when I'm working hard but distracted from ordinary concerns. Letting the toenail get too long and then making heavy use of the toes seems to be involved - but too short toenails have risks too. It will not look pleasant for a few months, but the only part that really hurts is at the time of the injury (I trim back the unattached part to a reasonable overhang, so the whole nail doesn't catch on something and get ripped off, then wait for that to grow back out with normal attachment)

I think I read that astronauts on spacewalks have lost or at least black and blued fingernails for a similar reason, after working their fingers for several hours against the air pressure of the gloves (instead of body weight on toes).

[FaceTheMusic]

This happened to me when I forgot my ballroom shoes and danced a private lesson in jazz shoes. We did waltz that day so I was up on my toes a lot. One hour was all it took and the bruises under the nails of both big toes lasted months. Now I keep an emergency set of dance shoes on top of the spare tire in my car, for when all the other pairs have mysteriously disappeared.

[maripossa24]

Thanks guys. I guess I will try new shoes, see if that helps. I don't really remember my shoes feeling uncomfortable though.

[FaceTheMusic]

My jazz shoes didn't feel uncomfortable at the time either, maripossa, and my feet didn't hurt during the lesson or even after. It's just that the shoes were so flexible that they didn't provide any support or protection to my toes and that led to bruises. But of course I can only tell you about my experience and have no way of knowing whether your problem was caused by shoes or something else. You might also think back to whether you had taken anything in the days before that made you more likely to bruise than usual - nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory meds such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen are common culprits.

[maripossa24]

FTM, that is a good point. I do take high dose Naproxen a few days a month, I never would have thought of that. Is there anything I can do to keep this from happening, do you think?

[waltzgirl]

The only thing I can think of in that case would be to use gel or foam toe "sleeves" to protect your toes from the pressure. You might find them at a drug store or, for sure, a website like footsmart dot com.