Lesser Toe Surgery
Dubai
The lesser toes — the four smaller toes — cause an outsized amount of misery when they deform. Hammer toes, claw toes and mallet toes rub in shoes, form painful corns, and often come with pain under the ball of the foot (metatarsalgia) as weight shifts away from where it should be carried. These deformities are progressive: flexible at first, then fixed and rigid.
When to act
Flexible deformities can often be managed with footwear changes, padding, and toe exercises. Once a deformity becomes fixed or the pain interferes with walking, correction is surgical — and treating it earlier, while smaller procedures are still enough, is usually the better bargain.
How Dr. Haidar treats it
Depending on the deformity, correction may involve releasing or transferring the small tendons, straightening the toe joint, and where needed subtly shortening a metatarsal to rebalance load across the forefoot. Many of these steps can be performed through minimally invasive, percutaneous techniques — small stab incisions rather than open surgery — often walking immediately afterwards in a flat postoperative shoe. Lesser toe correction is frequently combined with bunion correction in a single operation, since the two problems commonly travel together.
Recovery
Most patients walk from day one in a protective shoe, return to normal footwear around four to six weeks, and to impact activity thereafter as swelling settles — toe swelling is famously slow, and honest expectation-setting is part of the consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to take the next step?
Consultations available in English, French and Arabic at two Emirates Hospital locations in Dubai.