SHOULDER PAIN TREATMENT

The shoulder is such an important structure in our body. It is the link between our arm and our torso, it allows us to reach up and grab things, throw a football, pick up our kids and so much more and that is why shoulder pain is so common.

We often take it for granted until it starts hurting. Then you realize how many things aren’t as easy to do when your shoulder isn’t performing at it’s peak. Shoulder dysfunction can lead to pain and dysfunction of the elbow and the hand. It can even cause weird sensations that go into the hand such as aching and even tingling that can often times be thought of as “carpal tunnel”

When it comes to reasons for shoulder pain, your doctor may diagnose you with a rotator cuff problem, tendinitis or bursitis. From my experience. it really is more complicated than that. The shoulder has so many movements and so many muscles, ligaments, and tendons surrounding it that boiling it down to one diagnosis can make it just too simplistic.

Different ways of diagnosing your pain include physical exam, xrays, MRI, and musculoskeletal ultrasound. Often treatment will include postural changes, physical therapy exercises, cortisone injections and surgery. Many times, physical therapy and postural changes can work very well, however, unless you are 100% better you can still be left with some dysfunction which can lead to problems later in life that show up as neck pain, elbow pain, hand pain and even mid back pain. Those areas are directly connected to how the shoulder works and end up as problem areas because of compensating for the mild pain.

One of the reasons for shoulder pain that patients are told all the time is that they have a rotator cuff problem. When it comes to how complex the shoulder is, that just doesn’t tell the whole story. That’s why a comprehensive shoulder exam, looking at overall body structure is important. Then the use of Musculoskeletal ultrasound can provide much more detail and information about the shoulder and how it’s working. The ultrasound can identify small changes to the tendons, ligaments and bones and show areas of increased stressed.

If you’d like more information or would like to setup a consultation contact us.