Kim spends eight hours a day on her feet selling color and skin care products as the owner of a cosmetic studio. She also has personal training clients that rely on her to be on top of her game during their training sessions.

In addition to time spent on her feet in her cosmetic studio and with personal training clients, Kim and her husband have three dogs who Kim walks for a mile multiple times a day – which was becoming increasingly painful to do. She also had a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes in her closet – a gift from her husband that she couldn’t wear.

Kim had an increasingly painful bunion; a bone deformity caused by an unstable joint that allows the big toe to drift out of alignment and progressively worsens over time. “Emotionally, when your feet hurt it affects your mood. It can change the day and you just don’t feel good. I also didn’t like how my feet looked,” explains Kim.

Once her foot pain worsened so much that slipping off her shoes at the end of the day wasn’t enough relief and she had to resort to sandals and flip flops as workday footwear, the Summerlin resident went online to find a podiatrist.

In her online search for a podiatrist, Kim came across the Lapiplasty® Procedure and watched the video showing how the Lapiplasty® Procedure works. She also saw Dr. Abdi Raissi of Desert Orthopaedic Center in Las Vegas highlighted as a Center of Excellence on AlignMyToe.com. “I bypassed traditional bunion surgery and made an appointment with Dr. Raissi to ask about Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion Correction^™. After my online research, I had more information than most people going to visit a podiatrist.”

When they met, Dr. Raissi confirmed for Kim that “with the Lapiplasty® Procedure, the unstable joint causing the bunion is corrected instead of shaving down the bone and leaving the unstable joint unaddressed — which is a cosmetic fix only.” Kim was given a pamphlet about the procedure and decided to schedule her surgery. “I didn’t want the bunion to recur and I wanted a quicker recovery,1 so I felt that this was my best option for what was most important to me,” she shares.

Kim had the Lapiplasty® Procedure done on her left foot in October 2019. She was non-weight bearing for a week and remained in a walking boot for six additional weeks. “I iced my foot and elevated my leg. The boot had a pump for stability when walking,” she shares. Her husband “stepped up to help” the first week after surgery which was spent on crutches. Once she was in the walking boot, she was back to helping with the pets. Seven weeks after surgery, Kim was back in normal shoes.

So happy with her first experience with Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion Correction^™, Kim underwent the procedure again in December, this time, to correct the bunion on her right foot. After being non-weight bearing for a week, she wore a boot for five weeks. Six weeks post-surgery, Kim was back in her tennis shoes riding her stationary bike and using the elliptical machine. Kim shares that since undergoing the Lapiplasty® Procedure on both feet she has “no more bunion pain”.

“Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion^™ Correction is the greatest procedure, I can wear shoes again!” Kim shares, “It’s been a Godsend and my foot looks like a normal foot now. I could not be happier.”

1. Ray J, et al. Foot Ankle Int. 2019 Aug;40(8):955-960.

Only a surgeon can tell if Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion Correction^™ is right for you. As with any medical treatment, individual results may vary and this experience is unique and specific to this patient only. There are potential risks with surgery and recovery takes time. Potential risks include, but are not limited to: infection, discomfort from the presence of the implant, loosening of the implant, and loss of correction with nonunion or malunion.