A soft corn —interdigital heloma— is a callus that forms between two toes, almost always between the fourth and fifth. It is not an ordinary corn: because the skin there is always damp, the keratin softens and instead of a hard plaque you get a whitish, soft lesion with a core that hurts sharply when pressed or when the toes are squeezed together inside the shoe.
It forms where two bones rub through skin that has no room. So there are usually two causes: a narrow, pointed shoe that pushes the toes together, and a foot shape that already keeps them in contact —a rotated toe, a more prominent knuckle or clawed toes—. Moisture does not create it, but it is what makes it soft and painful.
What is looked at and what is done
- Exactly where it is and which two bones are rubbing.
- The shape of the toes, and whether one is rotated or clawed and causing the contact.
- Footwear: the width of the toe box and whether it presses the toes together.
- Removal of the lesion in the clinic, which is what takes the pain away straight away.
- Separating the area with a custom silicone orthosis, so it does not build up again.
Does it hurt between two toes when the shoe presses a little?
Book an appointmentFrequently asked questions
- Why does it always come back in the same place?
- Because the lesion is not the problem: it is the skin’s response to a contact that is still there. Between those two toes, two bones rub through skin that has no room, and while that contact repeats with every step, the skin will thicken again. Removing it at the appointment takes the pain away immediately — and that is real, not a patch — but on its own it does not change the cause. What changes it is creating space: a custom silicone orthosis separating those two toes, and footwear that does not push them together at the front. With both, most stop re-forming; with only the first, they come back.
- Do the toe separators sold in pharmacies work?
- They can relieve, and for that they are valid: if they separate the toes, they remove the contact and you feel it. What works against them is that they come in two or three sizes while your interdigital space is what it is, so they often overhang on one side — pressing where they should not — or fall short and do not separate enough. And if they are made of a closed material, they trap moisture in that area, which is precisely what makes the lesion soft and painful. Try one if you like, but watch two things: that it does not leave a mark on the neighbouring toe, and that you can keep the area dry. If those do not hold, a piece moulded on your own foot does that job without those two problems.
