When patients seek out cosmetic surgery from New York-based Dr. Oliver Zong, they're often looking to remove fat, but not from their bellies or thighs.
Zong is a podiatrist, and one of his specialties is slimming down people's fat toes -- "toe-besity," he calls it.
He's been in practice for about a decade, and when he started, toe reshaping was unheard of.
"When people first started asking, I said 'What?'" said Zong, who is surgical director at NYC FootCare. "We were mostly doing toe shortenings in the begining."
Now, he said, more and more people are zoning in on the smaller details of their feet, like the width of their toes.
For many patients, an odd-looking toe is a source of great embarrassment.
E.R., a patient of Zong's, said he hid his fat right big toe for years.
"I always had issues with it," said E.R., who asked to remain anonymous. "It was one of those things that you're just not comfortable with and try to hide it."
On top of being unattractive, the toe also caused discomfort.
"The bone was pushing the nail up, and the nail curved up a little bit, so it was hitting the shoe," he said.
Three weeks ago, the 37-year-old New Yorker had surgery to shave off some fat and bone. His second toe was also a hammertoe, so Zong shaved down the bone of that toe as well.
There's still a lot of swelling, but E.R. said he already feels better about his foot.
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