We are all aware of the maddening obsession for the Jimmy Choo brand which is indeed a class apart and has been really gaining prominence and is a luxury brand every lady is gaga over.
But little do we know that hundreds of Cinderellas are having their toes shortened surgically to fit into high-heeled, high fashion sandals, podiatric surgeons say.
Toes are also being lengthened, and there are reports that some beauticians are injecting filler into the soles of feet so women can wear high heels for longer.
Driven by women’s desire to fit into narrow high-fashion shoes, surgeons have been performing 70 toe shortening procedures a year in 2003 to about 250.
They shorten toes under local anesthetic by using new minimally invasive surgery that requires only a two millimeter incision. They then grind the toe to shorten it.
Women tend to want to have something done to make it look good aesthetically.
Mr Ozcan from Sydney, who performs about 150 toe shortening and lengthening procedures a year, was reluctant to perform surgery on women only driven by purely aesthetic motives.
In 90 per cent of cases, he only operated on those with unusually short or long toes if they already had foot pain and problems. ”Our society doesn’t realize that having long or short toes, or abnormally shaped feet, ends up causing problems because most shoes are shaped for Mr and Mrs Right,” he said.
But he points out that perfect feet do not exist.
Dr Bours said improvements in technology had made the surgery to shorten toes faster, cheaper at only $600, and less invasive with faster recovery times than in the past. Flabbergasted? It’s amazing how these dames can go through something as painstaking as this just to flaunt Jimmy Choo!
-MISBAAH MANSURI
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