'Cinderella surgery' growing in popularity

Newsflash: Heels are not comfortable. A reported 87 percent of women have foot problems because of heels, and some are trying a drastic measure to fix it.

The New York Times recently featured Dr. Ali Sadrieh, a California podiatrist, who essentially gives every patient their happy - and more comfortable - ending with what he's dubbed the "Cinderella Procedure."

Women bring in shoes they want to wear but can't because they either don't fit, or they don't fit comfortably. That helps him determine how he needs to surgically change their feet to fit the shoes. He began offering the procedure 13 years ago and it's taken off ever since.

The women are willing to go to great lengths, like changing the length of their toes, even getting rid of toes or having fat inserted into the soles of their feet.


At first, Sadrieh says he thought the procedure was a pretty shallow move, but then he adopted a different point of view, saying, "I came to see she needs these shoes to project confidence, they are part of her outside skin. That's the real world."

Women have opted for surgery in the name of foot fashion all around the country.

A podiatrist in Memphis, Tennessee has been performing similar procedures for more than 15 years and says he sees as many as 30 patients in a month - many requesting their entire pinky toe be removed!

We're not sure how Cinderella would feel about the surgery named after her. After all, in the original (and terrifying) fairytale, it was her stepsisters who cut off parts of their feet to fit into shoes ...