What is Turf Toe?
The spraining of your M-P joint of the first toe. The M-P joint is the metatarsolphalangeal joint. Your first toe is the big toe and the M-P joint is the joint near the ball of your foot. Like many injuries there are different degrees of turf toe.
(You get turf toe on your first M-P joint)
Degrees:
First Degree
Stretched joint cap and ligament
Second Degree
Partially torn cap and ligaments, no joint surface injury
Third Degree
Ruptured ligament, the joint surface is injured and the joint is dislocated
How to get Turf Toe:
When athletes push off from the balls of their feet it can cause their toe to hyperflex and pull on ligaments in the joint. This can then cause it to hurt the joint capsule. It can also happen by jamming the toe.
(Pushing off can cause hyperflexion of your toe)
What Makes You Susceptible to Turf Toe?
If you have shoes that do not support your toes very well, you are more likely to hyperflex your it, so get shoes that have a fairly stiff sole. If your toes are flexible and you have stretchy ligaments, you are also more likely to get Turf Toe. This is because your toe can already bend more than normal, and which would make it easier to get to the point of hyperflexion. If you participate in sports that involve sprinting or taking off quickly you are susceptible to Turf Toe because your to, more specifically your M-P joint, is where you push off from. Your M-P joint is the last structure that is in contact with the ground.
Signs/Symptoms of Turf Toe:
There are specific signs that help to determine what degree of Turf Toe you have:
Degree One
Minimal swelling, negative x-rays, and you have plantar/medial pain
Degree Two
Tenderness, moderate swelling, loss of motion, and bruising
Degree Three
` Severe pain, loss of motion, severe swelling and severe bruising
*Before you begin trying to rehab your injury you need to figure out what degree it is.
However, like for most injuries, when you initially hurt yourself you need to follow the method RICE:
R-Rest the injury
I-Ice the injury to keep swelling down
C-Compress the injury to also minimize swelling
E-Elevate the injury to prevent fluids from going down into the injured and speeds
recovery time
What can I do to recover?
The steps that need to be taken depends on the severity of turf toe you have. Three general rules to go by are the RICE method, taping, and spring steel shoes. (the reason for the taping and spring steel shoes are to provide more support to your big toe, so there isn't as much of a chance of hyperflexion)
First Degree
If you can still run and change direction
icing
taping
spring toe steel shoes
Second Degree
If you can still run
icing
taping
spring toe steel shoes
crutches
seeing a physician to rule out a fracture
Third Degree
You might need to have surgery depending on whether or not you tore ligaments
icing
taping
spring toe steel shoes
crutches
seeing a physician
(turf toe could result or lead to degenerative arthritis in your toe)
(Crutches can be used to help keep stress off your toe)
(Mole skin is a material that doesn't stretch like tape and therefore
can be used to provide more support to the toe)
(Ice and elevating the injured area helps to minimize swelling)
What should I do to prevent another injury to my toe?
use a theraband to strengthen the toe
work on your range of motion with your toe by moving it around (helps prevent Hallux Rigidus, your toe gets stiff)
pick items up with toes (e.g. marbles, pens, rocks)
scrunch a towel with your toes
(only do what you can, don't push it too much or you could make your toe worse)
(Picking up marbles helps to strengthen muscles in the toe, and helps to improve range of motion)
(Stretching your toe helps to improve range of motion and helps to prevent Hallux Rigidus)
(Scrunching a towel also helps to strengthen the muscles in you toe)
Bibliography
Edell, David. "Turf Toe." David Edell 2006 17 Nov 2008 http://www.athleticadvisor.com/Injuries/LE/Foot&Ankle/turf_-_toe.htm.
Bahr, Roald. Clinical Guide to Sports Injuries. Oslo: Gazette bok, 2004.
Comments (4)
Mr. Libby said
at 3:17 pm on Nov 17, 2008
Under the section "How to get turf toe" there are some extra words and the phrasing should be changed. Under the "susceptible" the first sentence needs to have the grammatical errors fixed. Maybe put "make sure the shoes have a fairly stiff sole "instead. Under the recover section there is sprind steel toe shoes instead of spring. I had no idea what turf toe was until I read your page. You did a great job explaining it and gave good examples on how to treat the problem!
Bobert L said
at 11:44 pm on Nov 18, 2008
Some of your topic headings use punctuation such as question marks and colons while other headings don't have any. Capitalize the word "stretched" in the Degrees section. Under "How to get Turf Toe": you have too many conjunctions AND you forgot the "e" on what I think should be the word 'toe' (unless you meant to say "to to") AND the first sentence is a run-on sentence. Under "Susceptible to Turf Toe": in addition to the first sentence, the last sentence also has grammatical errors..."it sports"...and needs a comma after "M-P joint". Under Signs/Symptoms: either use bullets or don't, capitalize the first word and put a colon after RICE. Under "Recover": add a comma between 'toe' and 'so'. The content, definitions, and layout of your work are terrific! The formatting, grammar, and spelling need some work. Strive for consistency...if you use capital letters and punctuation in the first heading, do it for all headings; if you use bullets for your outline of one topic, do it for all topics; if you "left justify" your paragraphs and use a single "tab" to offset sub-bullet items, do the same for all paragraphs. Very informative with a lot of details to back up your topics. Terrific!
Mr. Libby said
at 12:08 pm on Nov 21, 2008
Really good edit... Meagan, you need to go through and make these corrections OR have your dad go through and help you out with it (he should have access).
Mr. Libby said
at 3:54 pm on Jan 12, 2009
Good use of the pictures to help explain mechanism, activities etc.
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