Correct Toes Q&A

We receive a lot of questions about Correct Toes, and this page is dedicated to answering some of the most common ones. If you have a question about Correct Toes that doesn't appear anywhere else on our site, please send it to info@naturalfootgear.com and we'll post your question and our response here. Our goal is to make sure you understand how best to use this unique foot health product.

1. How long do I need to wear my Correct Toes until I begin experiencing foot health benefits?
2. Should I wear my Correct Toes at night? How do I get the most benefit out of my Correct Toes?
3. Can using wide toe box footwear alone help restore proper toe splay and rehabilitate my feet and toes?

1. How long do I need to wear my Correct Toes until I begin experiencing foot health benefits?

We find that most people, most of the time, experience some immediate relief, with continued positive musculoskeletal health benefits occurring over months and years. Of course, results may be different for different people, and the direct and indirect health benefits of Correct Toes depends on many factors, including your age, your tissue mobility, how frequently you use your Correct Toes toe spacers, your physical activity level, and how often you wear appropriate footwear, to name a few factors among many.

For architectural changes to occur in the foot, both time and dedication to Correct Toes use are important. For example, in attempting to reverse a bunion, some movement of the big toe (which is lacking in many patients with this health problem) likely will be visible within a few months of regular Correct Toes use (especially in people who use Correct Toes during weight-bearing activity). Further favorable changes may continue over many months or years.

Wearing Correct Toes is, ultimately, an investment in lifelong foot health. Think of it this way: It took a lifetime for your feet to conform to the narrow toe boxes of conventional footwear. Over many years, your foot shape changed, causing the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and soft tissues involved in standing, walking, and running to adapt to help slow this deformation. In most cases, it's possible to undo these negative changes, but sustained, long-term changes in foot structure take time.

2. Should I wear my Correct Toes at night? How do I get the most benefit out of my Correct Toes?

Many people do indeed wear their Correct Toes to bed as a "night splint" to help passively restore toe splay and address a variety of common foot and toe ailments. Perhaps the biggest benefit of wearing Correct Toes during sleep, though, is improved foot and toe circulation. Keeping your toes splayed at night encourages optimal foot blood flow, which means that blood can get into and out of your foot more easily, helping to wash away harmful metabolic byproducts that can accumulate over time and contribute to problems such as plantar fasciosis.

Anecdotally, some people also report that using Correct Toes as a night splint yields a variety of other benefits, including better sleep, less foot cramping, less foot pain upon awakening, etc. Not everyone who uses the device in this way may experience these benefits, but some people do and there is the possibility that you may too. That being said, one potential reason you might not want to use the spacers at night is that, when you're sleeping, you're not “aware” of your feet, and so if there's any numbness, tingling, or skin irritation, it could go unchecked, which is not optimal.

• Check out our article entitled Top 10 Benefits of Correct Toes to learn more about this helpful toe spacing device.

You can use thin velcro straps looped through the cavities in the device to keep your Correct Toes rooted in place overnight. Note: Make sure the straps aren't too tight; just tighten them enough to make sure the spacers stay in place.

So, for some people, wearing Correct Toes at night can indeed be helpful in improving foot health, but to get the most benefit out of your toe spacers, it's best to use them while weight bearing (i.e., standing, walking, or running). The greatest corrective effect occurs when you wear your Correct Toes inside footwear with an appropriately wide toe box and then participate in weight-bearing activities that impart forces through the joints and tissues of your properly splayed toes. Your tissues will adapt to these forces over time, and your toes will begin to spread out and your foot will become stronger.

Wearing Correct Toes while weight bearing is crucial in achieving long-lasting natural foot health, but there are several other things you can do to help enhance the effectiveness of the toe spacing device. Key among these is performing specific foot exercises, including the Big Toe Stretch, Hammertoe Stretch & Mobilization, and Toe Extensor Stretch. Choosing the appropriate footwear is also extremely important.

3. Can using wide toe box footwear alone help restore proper toe splay and rehabilitate my feet and toes?

Getting into a pair of men's or women's wide toe box shoes (specifically, shoes that are widest at the ends of the toes, not the ball of the foot) is vitally important in preventing additional toe deformities and in creating the circumstances that allow for true toe rehabilitation. So, a wide toe box shoe is crucial in preventing a worsening of foot problems, and it's part (but not all) of the foot and toe rehabilitation process.

Most of us have worn conventional footwear with constricting toe boxes for decades, and so it takes some serious work and dedication to regain our natural foot health heritage. For most, simply using wide toe box footwear alone is not enough to achieve optimal toe straightening; many of us possess toe deformities that require a more active approach to remedy. A toe spacing device, such as Correct Toes, is an effective tool in reorienting the toes to the position that nature intended. Weight-bearing activity (standing, walking, running) with the toes held in their normal anatomical position is necessary to enable natural toe splay. For other ideas about how to naturally rehabilitate your feet and toes, please visit this blog post.