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Dr. Ali Sadrieh, a podiatrist, started Evo Advanced Foot Surgery in Beverly
Hills, Calif., 13 years ago, he thought it seemed a little vain for women to
ask for surgery because their feet hurt wearing fashionable shoes.
“Patients
would bring in shoes they dreamed of wearing,” he said over tea recently at the
St. Regis New York, where he was staying to see New York patients. “On the
surface, it looked shallow. But I came to see she needs these shoes to project confidence,
they are part of her outside skin. That’s the real world.”
For Dr.
Sadrieh (who was wearing made-to-order Gucci brogues), foot surgery is a fusion
of medicine and fairy tale. At his practice, you don’t have a bunionectomy; you
have a Cinderella procedure.
“I had
never met a patient who asked for a hallux valgus correction with osteotomy and
screw fixation,” he said. “So I decided to create a name that captures the
result of the procedure, without all the Latin. The point of the Cinderella:
being able to put a shoe on that didn’t fit comfortably before.”
He also
has coined the Perfect 10! (aesthetic toe-shortening — once administered, he
said, to a 17-year-old fashion model, so she could wear the shoes her career
demanded); Model T (toe-lengthening); and Foot Tuck, a fat-pad augmentation
that he said helps with high heels.
And he
is not the only doctor changing the face, as it were, of foot surgery.
Dr. Neal Blitz,
a podiatrist who specializes in aesthetic and reconstructive procedures
(including a Bunionplasty) at his private practice in Manhattan, and operates
at Mount Sinai Hospital, calls this body part “the final frontier” for those
who have had work done on their faces. “My practice has exploded because of
Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin and Nicholas Kirkwood,” he said in a recent
phone interview. “There’s nothing like opening a shoe closet that’s been closed
to somebody for years.”
Perish
all thought of Dr. Scholl’s or Birkenstocks in these waiting rooms. Dr. Oliver
Zong, founder of NYC Footcare and self-proclaimed
“originator of the foot face-lift and toe tuck,” routinely corrects such
conditions as High Heel Foot (a term he coined to describe a deformed foot
that’s conformed to the shape of a stiletto), and Hitchhiker’s Toe, (an
abnormally large big toe that sticks out like the thumb of a hitchhiker). He
recently introduced the phrase “Toebesity,” which he plans to describe on his
site, where flashing text promises: “Designer feet for designer shoes.”
One
designer, Cathy Hardwick, who gave Tom Ford his first assistant job, had
bilateral bunion surgery from Dr. Richard Frankel, the founder of Park 56
Podiatry, in 2008. “He didn’t want to operate, it was so little,” she said of
the bump. But, she added: “It was unsightly and it hurt when I wore certain
shoes. A few years later he operated. My foot is perfect now. And I can wear
sandals I couldn’t wear before.”
Indeed, it’s not unusual for patients to walk into Dr.
Suzanne Levine’sInstitute
Beauté, a podiatry clinic and medical spa on Park Avenue, with a bag
full of shoes they can’t wear because of bunions and hammertoes. Victorian
boots, Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are some of the examples on
floor-to-ceiling glass shelves. Dr. Levine consults with patients on the
designer high heels best suited to their particular feet, knowing, for example
that both Prada and Michael Kors make a wider-than-average shoe last. “Some
people won’t go to the beach or the pool, they’re so embarrassed about their
feet,” said Dr. Levine, who was wearing chunky-heeled Michael Kors bootees
during a recent interview.
Her solutions, described in five books such as, “My Feet Are
Killing Me,” include, among others, platelet-rich plasma therapy; stem-cell
injections; injectable fillers for metatarsal cushioning; Botox;
Dysport; Myobloc for excess sweating. She also advocates exercises for the
feet.
The craziest request she’s received? “Once a patient came in
asking for toe liposuction,” Dr. Levine said incredulously. And Dr. Zong said
he had a patient ask to have a pinkie toe removed to fit into her shoes.
Neither request was granted.
