By: Michael Zapf, DPM, FACFAS, FACFAOM

It is very exciting to have the ACORN delivered to a whole new set of readers in Thousand Oaks. For those of you who have never read my column before, I have been writing a monthly column about the general area of podiatry and feet for 12 years. I frequently take a few tangents but they usually have something to do about feet. I hope you enjoy reading them. If you have any topics you want covered, please call my office.

I am looking at three bunion ads as I write this article that are filled with hyperbole and misleading statements. For those of you who have bunions, I share your skepticism for some of the claims made in these ads. For those of you who do not have bunions you might find interesting what some doctors would be willing to say in yellow pages and newspaper ads to garner a little business.

For the uninitiated, bunions are bony enlargements of the foot joint just behind the big toe. Along with the bump, the big toe leans toward the lesser toes. Without treatment bunions typically get larger until foot pain prompts patients to have them fixed. Non surgical treatments such as shoe modifications and padding typically are only a short-term fix. Eventually most bunions need surgical repair. Nearly all of your local foot surgeons perform bunion surgery as an outpatient procedure under local anesthesia with minimal sedation. Within a month most patients are back in regular shoes and there is little or no pain involved. Now, let us look at the ads.

The first ad features the banner headline LASER TREATMENT. Underneath are line drawings of two feet, one featuring a foot "before" and the other "after bunion surgery." The clear intent is to make readers believe that these two doctors actually repair bunions with lasers. This is shear misleading hucksterism. Bunions CANNOT be fixed with a laser! They never have and probably never will. Lasers produce an incredibly hot beam of light that will burn, and not cut, any bone it touches. These doctors truly have no shame. I suspect that when the unwary bunion patients present at their office they are told the truth with a mild apology about the "accidental misunderstanding." But you cannot convince me there is anything "accidental" about it.

The next ad features a "new" bunion surgery that "realigns the bones." It is "new" in the sense that it is a different assembly of standard techniques used by all good foot surgeons. What is new is how much it is being advertised. As for "realigning the bones," all bunion surgeries realign bones. A bunion is a bone abnormality and can never be repaired without bone realignment. Repairing a bunion without realigning bones is like reading a book without turning the pages. It simply cannot be done.

Two of the ads mention that bunion surgery is done "without hospitalization" and allows "walking the same day." Same story here. Virtually no bunion surgery requires hospitalization and everyone gets to walk in his or her post-op shoes the same day. These ads imply that they are the only doctors with these results. It is not true and all good foot surgeons have the patients to prove it.

Finally, all three advertise free visits or consultations. Professionally speaking, free consultations are potentially misleading and every few years our profession tries to outlaw the practice (obviously without success). Few people get away from a free visit without paying something. Offering to "just bill the insurance" for a free visit is actually illegal.

The net result is consumers need to beware. Just because the person advertising holds the title doctor does not mean that you can let your guard down when reading their ads (except, of course, mine.) It is better that you base your selection of doctor based on a referral from a trusted friend, health professional or hospital.