Save Bunion Surgery as a Last Resort: MD Podiatrist

Consider bunion surgery only when the pain becomes unbearable, experts say. “I don’t tell patients when they need it, they tell me,” Dan Michaels,  DPM says. “It’s usually when they have pain – with or without the shoe on – or can’t walk or run without pain. They think about their feet all the time. People whose jobs require standing up all day can’t work. These are the patients willing to put up with months of recovery.”
  
Dr. Michaels also discourages having both feet done together. “Some patients want it because they don’t want to have anesthesia twice, but I try not to do it,” he says. “You’re breaking a bone – why would you elect to have both feet broken at the same time?”