Nice Piggies: Medical Pedicures

by Anne Metz (RSS feed)
May 4th 2006 at 2:36PM

Corns, Calluses, Hammertoes, lend me your soles!

I come not to praise your bunions, but to bury them!

Or at least that's the thinking behind the medical pedicure -- a new trend in high-end beauty treatments. According to an article in the New York Times, medical pedicures refer to a treatment involving "extensive cleaning, sanding, buffing and shaping."

Unlike the pedicures most of us have come to love, which typically involve strip malls, special foot-bath chairs and conversations amongst pedicurists in languages you do not understand, the medical pedicure takes foot cosmetics to a whole new level.

The actual services involved in a medical pedicure can vary. If the service is provided by a medical spa, customers can expect to have their calluses, corns and ingrown toe-nails cut out with specialized tools. Some tend to be less involved and invasive -- offering customers a thorough cleaning and shaping that still trumps what you would get in your neighborhood nail parlor.

And what is the explanation for this trend? My guess is over-exposed feet.

With springtime shoes that are going from bare to hardly there, it's no surprise that women have started to feel self-conscious about the appearance of their feet. The beauty industry has tapped into a new lucrative market with this treatment, since the average medical pedicures range from $100-$300.

Tags: bunions, calluses, corns, feet, medical, pedicures, spa, The New York Times, TheNewYorkTimes, toes