Shorty here to tell you about some tiny bones you may not even know you have! A sesamoid bone is a bone that is held within a tendon or a muscle. Your knee cap is a sesamoid! Today I want to tell you about the sesamoids in your feet! At the base of your big toes, under the ball of your foot you have two tiny bones - sesamoids!
These bones are floating in the flexor hallucis brevis muslce. The tendon of your flexor hallucis longus goes in between your two sesamoid bones. Both of these muscles attach to your hallux (your big toe). The FHB and FHL muscles help point your big toe, draw the toe medially (opposite of bunion!), and are important muscles in medial ankle support.
When your foot alignment gets off, or you develop strength imbalance in your feet, it is possible to develop sesamoiditis, a very painful condition where the ball of your big toe becomes painful and inflamed when you put weight into that part of your foot. It is also possible to fracture these tiny bones. OUCH.
We recommend keeping your feet strong and balanced as well as wearing footwear that doesn't put undue force through the balls of your feet!
This post is an addition to our #monthofthefoot series. Expand your foot knowledge with all the posts in the series and check out more of #ShortySwan's infinite anatomy wisdom here!