Fashionistas turn to Botox injections to protect feet from ultra-high heels... as the first 8inch stilettos are launched




By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:22 PM on 19th October 2008


 
Victoria Beckham is famous for them, Gweneth Paltrow has a penchant for them and the Sex and the City girls are never seen without a pair.

Sales of vertiginous shoes are soaring but the craze comes at the painful price of sore and aching feet.
But now it seems fashionistas are being given a reprieve in the rise of a new 'foot filler' injection which can keep them in their towering shoes for longer.

The procedure which is popular in the US is uses Botox jabs to plump up the ball of the foot.

If the shoe fits: Victoria Beckham and Gywneth Paltrow are known for their love of ultra-high heels
Doctors are using the procedure to cure a condition known as 'stilettotarsal' - caused by years of wearing high heels.

The injury causes pain in the soft tissue on the ball of the foot, or metatarsal region, forcing the sufferer to wear flat footwear.

Medics at the Birkdale Clinic in Crosby, Merseyside, have seen a 20per cent increase in the number of women in their 40s asking for the £295 jab.

And it seems the procedure has come just in the nick of time with the high street planning to launch the first pair of eight inch heels next year.

Marie Jenkins, patient coordinator at the clinic, said with heels getting higher the procedure could become as common as breast enlargements or facelifts in years to come.
'More and more women are coming into the clinic to ask for foot fillers because their feet are starting to hurt,' she said.
'This isn't the type of pain induced by a pair of new shoes but pain after years of teetering on high heels. The balls of the feet take a lot of pounding in high heels but some women refuse to give up them up.
'They are an integral part of a woman's outfit and so women put up with the pain. But now they see they can do something about it by opting to have the extra padding.
'The procedure won't make their feet look any better but it will certainly protect the nerves and the soft tissue and make walking in their heels much easier. For many women this procedure is a godsend.'
And the operation may be set to become even more popular with Christian Louboutin preparing to launch the first pair of eight inch heels.

The shoes which are expected to go on sale next year will be nearly a full inch higher than the sky-high designs currently gracing the feet of celebrities.

'There's no doubt heels have never been as high as they are now,' Louboutin told the Sunday Times.
'You can find 20cm (7.9in) heels in the fetish trade but this will be the first time they make fashion mainstream.'
He continued: 'No one's forced to but these shoes or to wear them. We all have different pain thresholds - for some it's 3cm [1.2in] heels.
'Often the threshold of pain becomes a threshold of pleasure.'

 By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:22 PM on 19th October 2008