Bunion correctors are braces or splints which can be used through the night and are intended to help the position of the great toe or hallux in people who have bunions. Bunions are an enlargement of the great toe or hallux joint of the foot that is related to what is known as a valgus deformity of the great toe or hallux. The splint keeps the big toe in the ideal position throughout sleep in order to correct the deformity. There certainly is a lot of debate regarding if this works or not. The trouble with the idea is that bunions develop from a combination of a hereditary element, foot biomechanics and the use of tight wrongly fitted footwear. So during the day you will have all those forces producing the bunion along with the expectation is that using the bunion correctors at nighttime over comes those forces which happen when walking throughout the day, and that is probably not feasible.
For that reason should you use bunion correctors? There is some data that they could actually improve the angle of the great toe or hallux by a few degrees after having a month or so of use. There has been no research carried out to see if that progress gets any better with a long term use or if that progress is just temporary in the event you quit using the splint. Irrespective of that, a lot of clinicians advise still using them even though they don't change the angle of the toe. This is because, even if they do not correct the toe, they are going to still keep your toe mobile and flexible which is a good thing for your toe over the long term as the bunion condition advances. As well as using these correctors it's also most likely essential that you get expert advice about the ideal shoes to wear to counteract the bunion from getting any worse and also do some exercises to enhance the muscle strength around the joint.