According to Christopher Hodgkins, Orthopedic Surgeon at Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, a hammer toe is a deformity of one of the toes and what happens is over time the pull of the tendons become imbalanced and this results in the toe lifting up in the knuckle of the toe.

He also explains a hammer toe causes that the top of that knuckle will rub on the top of your shoe. For him, the best thing to do is starting with non-surgical treatments and trying to alleviate the symptoms.