The many effects of tight high-heels read like a laundry list of unsightliness: bursitis, bunions and corns included.

FORBES: Style

There are many different types of surgeries to correct bunions, depending on the nature and severity of the problem.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

But, she says, if the bunions get much worse, she might have surgery.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

These range from relatively minor conditions, such as corns and bunions, to serious issues such as ulcers and circulatory disorders.

BBC: Feet showing superimposed computer image of bones

Dr. Blitz also has a private practice in Manhattan where he performs what he calls a bunionplasty, which take a cosmetic approach to correcting bunions.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

Bunions come back between about 5% and 20% of the time.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

The risk of developing bunions - bony growths on the big toe - is linked to your family, not your shoes, a US study has shown.

BBC: Bunions - family not footwear to blame

The most serious bunions are treated with a joint-fusion surgical procedure known as a lapidus bunionectomy, in which the first metatarsal and the next bone back, a cuneiform, are fused together.

WSJ: Young People Also Weigh Surgery to Relieve Ugly, Painful Bunions

The study, carried out between 2002 and 2008, looked at people who had foot complaints, including bunions and hammer and claw toes and then looked at the incidence of the same conditions in close family members.

BBC: Bunions - family not footwear to blame