Corns are a common disorder affecting the foot. They are a natural response to pressure as the skin thickens up to safeguard itself from that pressure. At some stage the process goes wrong and becomes so thick that it is painful. There is a continual myth that corns have roots that they keep growing back from whenever you attempt to take them off. This is just like the analogy of plants that re-grow from their roots if you chop the top of the plants off. That analogy has been given to corns since they keep growing back again, but they do not possess roots to grow back from.
Corns develop from pressure and a experienced podiatric doctor could easily eliminate a corn. The problem is that after the corn is taken away if the pressure which caused it is still there then, obviously, it is going to come back. It grows back because the cause is still there rather than because the podiatrist left a root there for the corn to grow back from. That pressure could be from a poor fitting shoe or from something like a mallet toe or hallux valgus that leads to greater pressure on an area. When the corn is beneath the foot, then the cause is elevated pressure on the location where the corn is, most likely due to the way you walk.
The misconception is persistant simply because they do come back, so its vital that you remove the cause at the same time the corn is removed. There is no root to be removed. This means that the pressure over the foot the location where the corn has been really needs to be decreased or removed. This may involve issues like using better fitting footwear or the use of padding to get pressure off the location where the corn is. Occasionally surgery can be necessary to the bone beneath the corn to get rid of the pressure. If that cause isn't eliminated or decreased then the corn will come back, so it's clear to understand where the myth regarding corn roots arises from.
