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'Cosmetic surgery to rid feet of fat toes, coined 'toe-besity', is on the rise.
An odd-looking toe is a source of great embarrassment for many Americans who are turning to podiatrists for toe re-shaping surgery.
New York-based Dr. Oliver Zong, who specialises in slimming down people's feet, told Good Morning America that a growing number of people are beginning to obsess over smaller details of their feet, like the width of their toes.
Dr. Zong,who is also the surgical director at NYC FootCare, has been in practice for about a decade, and when he started, he said toe reshaping was unheard of.
He said: 'When people first started asking, I said 'What?'" We were mostly doing toe shortenings in the beginning.'
A 37-year-old patient of Dr. Zong's, who only spoke using his initials, E.R., said he hid his fat right big toe for years, and decided to have surgery to shave off some fat and bone.
His second toe was also a hammertoe, and on top of being unattractive, the toe also caused him great discomfort.
He said: 'I always had issues with it. It was one of those things that you're just not comfortable with and try to hide it. The bone was pushing the nail up, and the nail curved up a little bit, so it was hitting the shoe.'
He added that there is still a lot of swelling three weeks after surgery, but he already feels better about his foot.
'I already see improvement, and I feel so much more confident now,' he said.
Toe re-shaping surgery is considered entirely elective, so insurance companies will not cover the costs, which can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, depending on how complicated the procedure is.
'I don't think it's ethical unless you're having pain. It's trauma to the foot'
E.R.'s surgery cost $2,500, but Dr. Zong said the surgeries are not usually as complex as his.
While Dr. Zong doesn't see the harm in performing cosmetic procedures, as long as they are safe and as long as there is something to fix cosmetically, other podiatrists, however, do not support the idea of cosmetic foot surgery.
Dr. Hillary Brenner, a podiatric surgeon in New York and a member of the American Podiatric Medical Association said: 'I don't think it's ethical unless you're having pain.
'You're undergoing risks - there's the risk of anesthesia, infection, deformity of the toe if the surgery is not done right, a risk of re-occurrence and the risk of surgery in general,' she said. 'It's trauma to the foot.'
Dr. Zong believes toe surgery is the same as any other type of cosmetic procedures, helping patients who are embarrassed to gain self-esteem.
'They feel more confident. Some people have said they're so embarrassed that their boyfriends have never seen their feet,' he said.
Dr. Brenner said a number of patients, mostly women, have come to her requesting cosmetic surgery, many hoping to have their pinky toes removed in order to fit into smaller shoes.
However, she says she always turns them down.
'Why fix something that's not broken?' she said.
