Shoulder Pain Relief

Is shoulder pain stressing you out?  Or even preventing you from living your life at times?  When you’re dealing with a shoulder injury, even ordinary tasks like closing a door, brushing your hair, or carrying grocery bags can become a miserable burden.  Shoulder injuries can be as complicated as they are painful, and the most effective way to ensure proper recovery is to work with a physical therapist who will help your body heal itself.  Contact us anytime to start a personalized physical therapy program to correct your shoulder injury and live a pain free life.

What is Shoulder Pain?

According to the National Institute of Health, shoulder pain is the result of soft tissue breakdown within the shoulder joint. Such degeneration can affect your ligaments, joints, tendons, muscles, and all other tissues in the region.  Shoulder pain may stem from a variety of causes, the most common including:

• Frozen shoulder: a frozen shoulder, as the name implies, is frozen in place; you cannot move your arm without pain.  Frozen shoulder pain is usually persistent and may consistently ache.
• Dislocated shoulder: a shoulder dislocation involves a full separation of the shoulder socket from the head of your upper arm.  This is often due to impact during sports accidents or falls.
• Rotator cuff injury: if your rotator cuff is damaged, you’ll experience severe pain throughout your shoulder. Rotator cuff injuries can include muscle tears, bursitis, tendinitis, and other less common causes.
• Arthritis: arthritis involves inflammation and degeneration within a joint.  Our shoulders are joints which are particularly susceptible to developing arthritis and its accompanying pain.  This pain may be dull, consistent, and chronic.  If you suffer from arthritis, we are here to help.

Causes of Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain can happen for many reasons.  If you suffer from a chronic illness like arthritis, your shoulder pain may develop slowly and then worsen over time as the damage within your shoulder progresses.

In other cases, an acute shoulder injury may be in the form of a simple strain.  For example, if you play a sport like basketball, the repeated trauma of overhead arm movements may cause a strain or tear.

Many shoulder injuries develop suddenly from impact during physical activity or tripping and breaking a fall.  If you’ve ever had an injury that required shoulder immobilization, you may also be at risk for developing a frozen shoulder or arthritis.

No matter the cause, shoulder pain is not something you have to live with.  Physical therapy provides a non-invasive solution, and facilitates the return to pain free shoulder movement!

How Physical Therapy Can Help Shoulder Pain

Your physical therapist will begin by doing a full evaluation of your current range of motion and shoulder functionality.  This simple exam provides the information necessary to customize a treatment plan that will eliminate pain and get you back to full functionality.

Physical therapy focuses on reducing muscle spasms, decreasing painful inflammation, and expediting the healing process.  A multi-modal approach has been shown to be the most effective measure, and your multi-modal treatment plan will typically include:

• Strengthening exercises at our facility under the guidance of your physical therapist
• Customized exercise prescriptions that you can do at home
• Heat pack application to reduce pain and inflammation
• Ice pack application to reduce pain and inflammation
• Ultrasound therapy to reduce swelling and accelerate healing
• Electrical muscle stimulation to reduce pain and muscle spasms

A customized physical therapy program will help you to fully recover, without the need for potentially dangerous narcotics or surgery.  Physical therapy focuses on completely healing your shoulder injury, both long-term and immediately to relieve your pain now and into the future.

Ready to beat shoulder pain for good?  Get shoulder pain relief with physical therapy.  Contact our office now to schedule your visit. We look forward to helping you!