Joint · Foot
Interphalangeal joints (foot)
Reviewed by Dr. Ryan Rietz, D.P.T. and Dr. John Breyman, D.C.
The joints out along the toes, beyond the ball of the foot. The great toe has one; each of the other four has two, a proximal and a distal. They are hinges of the same design as the finger joints — a pulley-shaped head in a matching groove, a collateral ligament each side and a plantar plate beneath — but with far less range and almost no independent control, since the toes are moved largely by long tendons arriving from the calf. Their value is postural rather than dexterous: they are what lets each toe lie flat and press evenly into the ground, and a toe held bent at these joints presses through its tip instead of its pad, contributing far less of that contact.
Also known as
- toe IP joints
- toe joints
- interphalangeal joints of the toes