If you are looking for shoulder pain treatment, the information below will help you make a better decision as well as help you avoid unnecessary and expensive healthcare treatment.
Seven Common Medical Diagnoses that Cause Shoulder Pain
There are seven common diagnoses that cause shoulder pain and usually respond very well to physical therapist directed treatment. These diagnoses are:
- Shoulder Impingement
- Shoulder Tendinitis
- Rotator Cuff Tears
- Subacromial Bursitis
- Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis)
- Calcific Tendinitis
- Shoulder Dislocation/Instability
What You Need to Know – Don’t Insist on an MRI
Before you go down the path of expensive imaging studies like MRI and CT scans, you should know that these types of tests often produce false positives.
What this means is the test might indicate that something is wrong in your shoulder but it a. isn’t the source of your pain or b. doesn’t require immediate surgery.
To illustrate this point, consider the conclusion of this study and this article published in the NY Times:
Magnetic resonance imaging identified a high prevalence of tears of the rotator cuff in asymptomatic individuals. These tears were increasingly frequent with advancing age and were compatible with normal, painless, functional activity. The results of the present study emphasize the potential hazards of the use of magnetic resonance imaging scans alone as a basis for the determination of operative intervention in the absence of associated clinical findings.
Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7822341
The pitchers were not injured and had no pain. But the M.R.I.’s found abnormal shoulder cartilage in 90 percent of them and abnormal rotator cuff tendons in 87 percent. “If you want an excuse to operate on a pitcher’s throwing shoulder, just get an M.R.I.,” Dr. Andrews says.
Reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/health/mris-often-overused-often-mislead-doctors-warn.html
What to Do First – See One of Our Shoulder Treatment Experts at Physical Therapy Innovations
If you are experiencing shoulder pain, you shouldn’t try to self-diagnose the problem. Our specialists can help you with this.
In almost all of the patients we see, natural, hands-on physical therapy is the treatment that you should try first. The advantages of seeing one of our physical therapy experts are as follows:
- No waiting – In most cases, we can see you withing one week.
- No side effects – In most cases, the treatment we provide has little to no side effects and can make you feel much better,
- It’s more affordable – an average course of treatment cost much less than tests, injections, or surgery,
- Seeing one of our physical therapists right away means we can quickly alleviate the pain and help you avoid additional medical visits.
- Seeing one of our physical therapists first means you are less likely to need addictive opioid drugs
How Our Shoulder Specialists Will Care for You
We want to make sure that we are providing you with the appropriate treatment. As such, here are the steps that new patients go through:
- An in-depth initial evaluation where we talk to you about your pain, medical history, and current condition.
- A detailed physical exam looking at movement, strength, flexibility, soft tissues and nerves of the neck, shoulder blade, shoulder joints, and arm.
- A customized, personalized plan of care to meet your goals.
- Patient education – details of what we’ve found during the exam and how we will help you address these limitations.
- Manual Therapy – hands-on techniques for pain relief and to restore mobility.
- Neuromuscular Reeducation to address restrictions, weakness, and range of motion
- A Home Program – we teach you what you can do to optimize healing at home to improve healing and decreased the risk of reinjury.
- Modalities – specific treatments to address your pain if needed. For example, cupping, dry needling, instrument assisted soft tissue manipulation, etc.
See One of Our Experience Shoulder Professionals Right Away
Physical therapist directed care is proven to be an effective treatment approach for the shoulder conditions described above. For more information, visit our contact page. We look forward to helping you.
