What are corns and calluses?

You ask a lot of your hands and feet. You cram your feet into shoes and walk around all day. And you may apply great force to your hands as you work with tools in your job or at home. These actions subject your skin to friction and pressure. Your skin often protects itself by building up corns and calluses — thick, hardened harmless layers of skin.

Although the two are often confused, corns are smaller than calluses — less than a quarter-inch in diameter — and have a hard center. Corns usually develop on the tops and sides of your toes and can be painful. Calluses, which may feel rough but are rarely painful, vary in size and shape. Calluses usually develop on your soles and palms.

Although corns and calluses can be unsightly, you need treatment only if they cause discomfort. Usually, you can eliminate corns and calluses on your own.

Causes

You get corns and calluses from the pressure and friction of repetitive actions. They may build up on your feet from wearing ill-fitting shoes that repeatedly rub or compress areas of your feet. Calluses on your hands may result from the repeated pressure of using tools on the job, around the house or in the garden.

Risk factors

These factors may increase your risk of corns and calluses:

• Not protecting your hands. Using hand tools without wearing gloves exposes your skin to repeated friction.
  
  
• Bunions or hammertoe. Both of these conditions can cause constant rubbing inside your shoe. A bunion is a bony protrusion at the base of your big toe. The condition bends the big toe toward or makes it overlap with the next toe. A hammertoe occurs when your toe becomes clenched like a claw.
  
  
• Foot deformities. A pre-existing foot deformity, such as a bone spur, may put extra pressure on certain parts of your foot.

Hammertoe and mallet toe

Treatment

In most cases you can prevent corns and calluses or treat them on your own. If a corn persists or becomes painful, see your doctor. Usually in an office visit, your doctor can pare down a large corn, providing relief.

The problem can be more serious if you have an underlying foot deformity. Your doctor may be able to correct the situation with surgery or custom-made padded shoe inserts (orthotics) to prevent recurring corns.

Prevention

Eliminating sources of friction or pressure should help you prevent corns and calluses from developing. These approaches may help:

• Wear shoes that give your toes plenty of room. If you can't wiggle your toes, your shoes are too tight.
  
  
• Wear gloves when using hand tools, or try padding your tool handles with cloth tape or covers.

Self-care

These steps may help you clear up corns and calluses:

• Apply over-the-counter pads to protect areas where corns and calluses develop. Be careful using over-the-counter liquid corn removers or medicated corn pads. These contain salicylic acid, which can irritate skin.
  
  
• During or after bathing, rub corns or calluses with a pumice stone or washcloth to help remove a layer of toughened skin. Never cut or shave corns or calluses. You could introduce an infection.

If you have diabetes or poor circulation, call your doctor before self-treating corns or calluses. Even a relatively minor injury to your foot could lead to a difficult-to-heal open sore (foot ulcer).

— August 6, 2001 —

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