Acute Effect of Toe Cap Choice on Toe Deviation Angle and Perceived Pain in Female Professional Ballet Dancers

This study conducted by a group of scientists from Italy, Croatia and Qatar, investigated the acute effect of the use of different types of toe caps among professional ballet dancers on pain perception and toe deviation angle.

Ten young professional dancers (18.6 ± 3.8 years old; 14.4 ± 2.9 years of training; 10.3 ± 3.9 hours of training per week) volunteered to participate in the study. Among the inclusion criteria was the diagnosis of hallux valgus by an orthopedist and/or sprain of the medial collateral ligaments of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTP) verified by a sonogram or magnetic resonance imaging.

In two sessions separated by 72 hours, each participant used a standard commercial or a customized prototype toe cap. During these sessions, an anteroposterior x-ray was taken and a visual analog scale was administered for pain perception after each situation. Significant amelioration was obtained when the customized toe cap prototype was used both for toe deviation angle and for visual analogue scale. 

The first finding of the study was that toe deviation angle was significantly higher with a standard commercial toe cap compared with a customized prototype. The second finding was that the visual analogue scale value for pain perception was significantly higher (i.e., worse) when dancers used the standard commercial toe cap (P=0.00005).

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