A great number of patients who come to us with shoulder pain are suffering from osteoarthritis (OA). OA is a condition of the joints that occurs when the cartilage that cushions your bones breaks down and wears away. When this happens your bone begin to rub together causing damage and pain. As your arthritis gets worse and your cartilage wears away, you may not be able to fully rotate, flex, or extend the joint that hurts. Or you may not be able to use the joint at all.
Most people can manage osteoarthritis pain with medicine, exercise, and other treatments that don’t involve surgery.
If you’re not ready to have surgery for your shoulder pain there are a variety of non-invasive treatment options that can help you manage discomfort and regain freedom of motion. Medicine, exercise, physical therapy, and other treatments can all help relieve your symptoms, including:
- Acupuncture. This process involves carefully putting very tiny needles into your skin at certain places on your body to relieve pain.
- Diathermy. Diathermy uses heat to increase blood flow throughout the shoulder for pain relief and quick healing.
- Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy. This therapy uses magnets to produce an electrical pulse that may help cartilage grow.
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or TENS. It uses a mild electrical current to reduce pain.
- Relaxation and breathing exercises, such as meditation, guided imagery, and yoga. These can help reduce stress and relax your mind and muscles.
Your doctor might start to recommend shoulder replacement if your pain is so severe you can’t move your arm and shoulder or if you have tried medicine and other treatments with no improvement. After surgery, your shoulder won’t move as far as it did before. But it should help your pain. Many people are able to go back to playing sports such as golf, swimming, riding a bike, and cross-country skiing.
If you are suffering from shoulder pain, schedule a diagnostic appointment with one of our primary care sports medicine specialists today. They can help evaluate the soft tissues around your shoulder and create an individualized treatment plan to get – or keep – you active.