Dancer's Pad
A pad cut out around the first metatarsal head that floats the sesamoids and offloads a painful 1st MTP, the classic sesamoiditis accommodation.
Offloads the sesamoids
Aperture shaped to the lesion
Relieves 1st MTP overload
How it works
A dancer's pad is a forefoot pad with an aperture cut around the first metatarsal head. Load that would land on the sesamoids is picked up by the surrounding pad and spread across rays two through five, floating the painful complex off the shell entirely.
It's the classic sesamoiditis accommodation, and equally useful any time a plantarflexed first ray drives sub-first-met pressure the patient can feel with every step.
When to prescribe it
- Sesamoiditis and sesamoid stress injury
- Plantarflexed first ray with sub-1st-met overload
- Return to sport after sesamoid injury
- IPK beneath the first metatarsal head
- First MTP pain aggravated by direct plantar pressure
How we build it
The aperture is shaped to the patient's own first-met-head footprint on the scan, not a stock cutout, with a soft transition wall so the edge never becomes its own pressure point.
Aperture shaped to the lesion
Floats the sesamoids
Soft transition edges
Placement from the scan