Shoulder Pain – The Cause and The Cure

sEvery individual, at some point in his/her life, has experienced shoulder pain. Shoulder pain can in fact be a nuisance most of the time because of pain and discomfort, due to which we have to refrain from certain activities.

What are the main causes behind shoulder pain? How to alleviate or cure shoulder pain? How can physical therapy Dallas help ease shoulder pain? Keep reading if you want to find answers to these and many other similar questions.

The Causes of Shoulder Pain

There are numerous causes of shoulder pain, some of which require immediate medical attention, and others that aren’t a cause of concern and will improve with time. Here we have listed the main causes and factors of shoulder pain:

Rotator Cuff Tendinitis

This is one of the main causes of shoulder pain and is a result of swollen tendons. The rotator cuff tendons may have become damaged, due to which it hurts to move the tendons and muscles that help move your shoulder joint.

Impingement Syndrome

This is another common and prevailing cause of shoulder pain in individuals and happens when the rotator cuff rubs between the humerus and top outer edge of your shoulder. Therefore, this results in swelling, which can also cause pain and irritation. Hence, the pain and discomfort in the shoulder.

Injuries

Most of the time, an individual might have injured his/her shoulder, which is causing pain or discomfort. This injury might have caused inflammation around the shoulder joints or damage to the tissues or muscles surrounding the joints.

Frozen Shoulder

This common condition has characteristics of stiffness and discomfort in the shoulder joints. Moreover, this condition worsens over time but reduces gradually after several years.

Arthritis

Arthritis is mostly found in aging adults and is a result of damaged cartilage in shoulder joints. Thus, the cartilage in a person’s shoulder deteriorates on the ball and/or socket sides of the shoulder joint. This causes extreme discomfort, as well as stiffness and difficulty in mobility.

Avascular Necrosis

This is a result of the death of bone tissue due to limited blood flow.

Brachial Plexus

The brachial plexus is nerves present in our bodies that send signals from an individual’s spinal cord to other parts of the body, such as arms, legs, and shoulders. Therefore, an injury in the brachial plexus can easily occur when such nerves are ripped, torn, or stretched from the spinal cord.

Dislocated Shoulder

In a dislocated shoulder, a person’s upper arm bone pops out of the cup-shaped socket in the shoulder blade.

Polymyalgia Rheumatica

This is a common disorder affecting several people and causes severe muscle pain and stiffness.

Shoulder Sprains

Ligaments present between two bones in our joints can easily be stretched or torn if a considerable amount of tension is applied to them. Thus, this results in sprains.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

The blood vessels or nerves that are present between a person’s collarbone or rib can be easily compressed. Therefore, this can easily result in pain and discomfort in the shoulders, and can even cause numbness in the fingers as well.

Cure of Shoulder Pain

We’ve talked about the causes of shoulder pain. Now, let’s head over to the ultimate cure of shoulder pain, and how to drastically alleviate the pain and discomfort. However, it is important to note that cases that are severe may need surgery, while others can easily be treated by therapy, such as occupational and physical therapy Dallas that includes various special exercises.

Medication

In case your shoulder pain isn’t severe, your primary doctor may prescribe you painkillers to help with the pain and discomfort. Moreover, you can also be prescribed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) or corticosteroids by your doctor. Thus, a person’s shoulder pain will alleviate and significantly reduce with the help of some medication, without having the need for surgery.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is one of the main treatments for any type of pain, especially shoulder pain. In most cases, physical therapy is most commonly prescribed as the best treatment in order to cure shoulder pain. The ultimate goal of physical therapy is to enhance and improve the functioning of the muscles that are surrounding the shoulder of an individual and also to increase mobility and flexibility.

Physical therapy includes various exercises and physical activities, such as strengthening exercises, stretching, and joint mobilization.

Here are the numerous techniques that a physical therapist will make use of during physical therapy:

Hands-On Therapy

This includes making use of manual techniques in order to restore shoulder mobility by loosening up muscles and tissues. This will greatly help alleviate the shoulder pain and discomfort as well.

Stretching

Stretching greatly helps to encourage motion and flexibility of joints and muscles, which helps to significantly reduce pain and also strengthen muscles.

Strengthening Exercises

Strengthening exercises are aimed to get rid of muscle soreness and stiffness, and also promote stronger muscles and more flexibility. Such exercises and physical activities will also refrain such shoulder pain and injuries from occurring anytime soon as well.

Joint Mobilization

Joint mobilization is imperative to increase mobility and flexibility in the shoulders of an individual suffering from shoulder pain, by stretching the joint capsule.

Ultrasound

Physical therapies are now making use of therapeutic ultrasound in order to help improve the flexibility of the tissues around a person’s shoulder before performing various sorts of exercises. This is ideal before exercises as ultrasounds help improve flexibility and mobility of the shoulder needed to stretch.

Electrical Stimulation

Electrical stimulation aims to further improve an individual’s strengthening of the shoulder muscles.

Athletic Taping

This is also commonly referred to as strapping and involves the use of tape applied to a person’s body in order to provide structural and flexible support.

Therefore, all these techniques and practices are widely used in physical therapy. However, it is important to note that before the whole physical therapy program begins, the physical therapist will first carefully examine and analyze the mobility and functional abilities of the shoulder. From thereon, an individualized plan will be developed to manage shoulder pains and improve mobility.