To potentially prevent getting hammertoe, make sure you are wearing the proper footwear. Proper footwear includes shoes that have the appropriate toe box size for your specific foot characteristics. This will provide the space required to keep your toes uncrowded. It is also advised to avoid wearing high heels if possible. This is a significant preventative step.
Sometimes they fit patients with braces and splints to force the toe into a normal position, which works to stretch the shortened muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Exercises, such as picking up marbles and scrunching a towel with your toes are often prescribed. In more severe cases, outpatient surgery is necessary. These surgeries can involve cutting or moving ligaments and tendons and fusing the bones on either side of the effected joint.