Corns are a common disorder of the foot that can be painful and hard to treat. Corns are due to an excessive amount of pressure on an area of skin. They are part of a normal mechanism that has gone awry. Anytime there is a lot of pressure on the skin, that region of skin will thicken up to protect itself. When the pressure goes on over a longer period of time, it becomes so thick that it is painful. This is similar to the process which occurs when, for example, chopping wood. Doing this, you ultimately make a callus on your hand. A similar thing takes place on the foot with pressure from the ground or pressure on a toe from the shoe. When you stop chopping wood, the thicker skin on the hands disappear. The issue in the foot is that you keep using footwear and you continue walking, so the pressure continues and the thicker skin forms into a corn and becomes painful.
Getting rid of corns is comparatively easy and a skilled podiatrist will be able to remove them. That is the simple part. The hard part is stopping them coming back. It can be one thing to remove them, however if you don't remove that cause (the greater pressures on the location), then they will just return eventually. Corns don't have roots that they grow back from. They come back since the cause is still there. Getting rid of a corn is similar to managing the symptom. They are going to return unless the reason is removed. That's where the ability of a podiatrist is necessary to find out the correct cause. A full assessment is needed of the function, shoes, foot shape and lifestyle to sort out just what it is that is causing the higher pressure. When that reason has been identified, then different treatments can be used to get rid of that pressure. This may vary from simple footwear advice to foot orthotic to surgical treatment.