Pain in the ball of my foot- Metatarsalgia
Pain in the ball of the foot, sometimes spreading to the toes, is called metatarsalgia. The term is often used as if it is a specific condition but metatarsalgia is a type of pain produced by a range of conditions with their own causes and treatments.
If any of the metatarsal heads begins to press down on the ground too hard, a callosity or corn will develop below those metatarsal heads. If the pressure worsens, the tissue becomes inflamed and sore. This can feel like walking on a stone or pebble. With deterioration, the joint at the base of the toe inflames. The whole forefoot can swell and the toe joint loses its shape so that the toe becomes angled or clawed. It is sometimes unclear whether the metatarsal pressure caused the clawing or vice versa.
This overload syndrome of the metatarsal heads is probably the commonest cause of metatarsalgia. It can happen as a result of other conditions such as hallux valgus (bunions) but simply losing the sponginess of the fatty tissue cushioning the foot (atrophic fat pad) can be enough and tight calf muscles seems to exacerbate the problem.
If the pain, with or without callosities, is under the ball of the big toe, the problem could be with the two baked bean-sized sesamoid bones which form that area. These can become inflamed (hallux sesamoiditis), injured, fragmented or arthritic. Inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis can cause metatarsalgia by making the soft tissues inflamed or by damaging the joints at the base of the toes so that the toes become clawed. A pain in the ball of the foot which has a tingly character and goes in to one or two of the toes might be caused by a Morton's neuroma, especially if the pain is better in bare feet even if the floor is hard.