How to Treat Calluses on the Ball of My Foot

Wearing the wrong shoe size, improperly padded shoes or high-heels can causes calluses to form on the balls of your feet. Too much pressure and friction from over-tight shoes makes the shoe to rub against your foot and cause blisters or bruises. Your foot develops a layer of dead hard skin called a callus as a natural form of foot protection. Going barefoot also causes calluses to form as a natural protection from the ground. Treat your calluses by removing the dead skin and creating the proper padding for the insole of your shoes.

Things You'll Need

• Foot bath tub
• Towel
• Pumice stone or callus file
• 20 percent urea hand cream
• Foam rubber insoles
• 1/8-inch thick foam or felt
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Super glue

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Instructions

• 1

  Soak your foot in a foot bath tub full of comfortably hot water for 10 minutes to soften the dead hard skin of the callus. Pat your foot dry with a towel.

• 2

  Remove the dead white skin of the callous by rubbing a pumice stone or callus file back and forth over it. Stop filing once your foot is smooth to the touch and you reach the under-layer of skin that is the same color as the rest of your foot. Apply hand cream with 20 percent urea to the ball of your foot to soften the remaining hard skin.

• 3

  Insert a pair of foam-rubber insoles into your shoes. Walk in the shoes for one week to make an impression in the insoles. Remove the inserts from your shoes. Examine the inserts for the depression or area you flattened by walking on it. The flat area is where you are putting your weight onto the ball of your foot and the friction of the motion causes a callus to form.

• 4

  Reinforce the flat areas of the shoe inserts with extra padding to redistribute the weight away from the ball of your foot. Measure with a ruler 1/8-inch thick foam into two 1/2-inch by 2-inch strips and cut them out using scissors. Glue the strips onto the left and right side of the insole's flat area with super glue. Cut a 2-inch by 2-inch strip out of the 1/8-inch thick foam. Glue the strip behind the flat area of the insole, which is the side of the flat area facing the heel.