How to tell if my toe is broken?

How can one tell the difference between a broken, sprained, or fractured toe?

• on thanksgiving (last thursday) i slammed my pinky toe on my right foot into a dining room dresser. it was extremely painful for a good 5 minutes. it knocked the breath out of me and i have quite a high pain tolerance. i couldn't walk or put any pressure on the foot at all that day. it has a cut on it and i honestly have no idea if the nail is still there (i have a very small nail on that toe as is and they had chipped black paint on them, so it's difficult to tell). i buddy taped it and covered the nail/cut with bandaids. it's been 4 days going on 5 and aside from a discoloration near the cut the toe itself hasn't turned black and blue. it is swollen but it appears to be going down. it feels like the top is colder than the rest of it, but i think that's paranoia. it's improved daily as has my mobility. i have so many other unrelated doctor's appointments already i'm not overly excited of going to the hospital if the treatment is the same for a sprain or break. but i just recently considered the possibility of a fracture. i assumed it would be visually out of place, the toe would have changed colors, or the swelling wouldn't have improved if there was really a problem. are there really any tell tale signs?

• Answer:

  X-Ray. If broken, tape it to the other toe. That's all you can do to immobilize it.