Corns are known as one of the most nuisance and painful troublemakers in one’s day to day life. As they typically grow on the feet, they may also take a long period to heal. Not only are they painful, but they can also result in serious infections when left untreated for a long time. Hence, in this article, we have listed some of the essential points on how to get rid of corns. But, let’s first start with the definition of corn.
What is corn?
Corns are hardened form of skin which can generally be found on your feet. Although these somewhat look similar to a callus, they are comparatively more hard, painful, and also smaller. These occur when your feet skin experiences a tremendous amount of pressure or a lot of friction with your shoes and socks. They can be either soft or rigid, depending upon the accumulation of skin and their position.
Types of Corns
They can be categorized into three types, i.e., hard, soft, and seed.
Hard corns typically grow on thick skins of your feet while soft corns are somewhat rubbery in texture and can be found between the toes. However, seed corns are often the smallest of them and appear on the bottom part of your feet.
Are Corns a disease?
Although you might have heard that corns are a form of skin disease, not everything you listen to is correct. They are your body’s response to pressure and friction on sensitive areas. As repeated friction can injure the skin, the body automatically starts deflecting the injury by enhancing the production of collagen. This increase in collagen when accumulates in a single place forms corn.
How to prevent corns?
Preventing the appearance of corn is not so difficult. However, they can be quite persistent. Hence, one needs to follow proper hygiene and clean their feet regularly and thoroughly to reduce such risks. Some of the tips to prevent corns include:
1. One must always wear shoes and socks of perfect fitting size. This will eliminate too much pressure or friction on your feet and toes.
2. Trimming of your nails must be done frequently, to avoid pressure build-up against your shoe. Long nails can injure the sensitive skin on your feet and may also lead to bleeding and infections.
3. Wash your feet with soap and water at the end of the day. You can also use a foot scrub brush to get rid of dust and dirt.
4. Another trick to avoid the onset of corns is to moisturize your feet daily with a mild moisturizing cream. The cream will prevent excessive drying of the skin by retaining moisture in them. You can choose to apply the cream at night time for a better absorption rate.
5. If you have recently treated corn, then using a corn pad can come in handy. This will help in stopping the reoccurrence of the corn by distributing the pressure to other areas.
How to get rid of corns?
Now, we will be telling you some of the easiest ways on how to get rid of corns, so be sure to follow these in your day to day life. However, if the pain is unbearable or you see blood or pus oozing out from the corn, you must immediately go to a professional
1. Soak your feet in warm water- If you have hard corn on your feet, then soaking it in warm water can help smoothen its nearby surface. Moreover, you will also experience reduced pain, swelling, and even redness.
2. Using a Pumice stone- In the long journey of how to get rid of corns, you need to regularly but carefully file the corn with a pumice stone. This must be done in gentle circular motions to avoid the risk of bleeding.
3. Applying Moisturizing creams- Using lotion or cream having salicylic acid can help soothe the surrounding area. Apart from this, salicylic acid also helps reduce keratin deposits by dissolving the layers slowly.
4. Using Medications- While almost all corns can be treated by the methods as mentioned above, some corns might be too stubborn. For this, you may need to use medicated lotions or might even need surgery for its removal.
Reportedly, women are more prone to having corns rather than men. This is because of their constant use of tightly fitting footwear, shoes, heels, etc. Hence, one must maintain proper hygiene and wear only the perfect fitting shoes to stay away from these painful body responses.