Wave Goodbye to Shoulder Pain

If you’re reading this on your phone, that means you’re using your shoulder. All too often, it’s not until you develop a problem in one of your joints that you truly appreciate just how much you rely on that area of your body. This is certainly true of your shoulders, which you use for all manner of important tasks, from eating to driving.

If you’re struggling with shoulder pain, the team of integrative specialists here at Valliant Life Medical is here to help. In this month’s blog post, we’re going to review some of the more common culprits behind shoulder pain and the ways we can help you wave goodbye to the discomfort.

Common causes of shoulder pain

Windmill your arms for a moment or reach back and scratch your back. Your arms enjoy an incredible wide range of motion, largely due to the shallow ball-and-socket joints that make up your shoulders.

This range of motion can come at a cost as your shoulder joints are inherently unstable, leaving them more vulnerable to damage, including:

Rotator cuff tears

There’s a group of muscles and tendons that form your rotator cuff, the tissue that holds your upper arm in the socket. If you overstress or overuse this band of tissue, you can develop a rotator cuff tear, a condition that sends almost two million people in the United States to seek medical help each year. This type of injury is usually gradual and comes with nagging pain.

Shoulder dislocation

When you dislocate your shoulder, your humerus (upper arm bone) comes out of the socket. This is usually the result of acute trauma, and the pain is immediate and often quite severe.

Shoulder bursitis

Many of the joints in your body, including your shoulders, feature tiny, fluid-filled sacs called bursae that prevent friction between your bones and soft tissues. If the sac becomes inflamed, it can lead to a painful condition called bursitis. Bursitis can be caused by overuse, infection, or trauma.

Shoulder impingement syndrome

This is a condition in which your rotator cuff rubs against the outer edge of your shoulder blade, which can cause a good deal of discomfort.

Frozen shoulder

Your shoulder joint is encircled by a capsule, and frozen shoulder is a condition in which this capsule thickens and stiffens. Your shoulder goes through a painful freezing period that leads to the frozen stage during which the movement of your shoulder is difficult. Finally, you can reach the thawing stage, though that can take years.

This list of shoulder disorders is by no means complete, but it gives you a better idea of the many conditions that can lead to shoulder pain.

Remedying your shoulder pain

As integrative specialists, our team likes to use every tool at our disposal to address shoulder pain. After a complete evaluation, we figure out the best course of action for your shoulder, which might include one or more of the following:

It would be difficult to say here what will work for your shoulder pain, but we want you to know that we leave few stones unturned when it comes to finding nonsurgical and effective solutions.

For expert diagnosis and treatment of your shoulder pain, please contact our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to set up an appointment.