Shoulder Pain Problem
Shoulder pain is common in our community. In younger people, pain is more likely to be due to an accident or injury. However, as you age natural wear and tear occurs in the shoulder joint and the rotator cuff tendon. This may become persistently painful over time.
The shoulder has a wide and versatile range of motion. When something goes wrong with your shoulder, it hampers your ability to move freely and can cause a great deal of pain and discomfort.
Most shoulder problems fall into four major categories:
- Tendon inflammation (bursitis or tendinitis) or tendon tear
- Instability
- Arthritis
- Fracture (broken bone)
Other much fewer common causes of shoulder pain are tumors, infection, and nerve-related problems.
Sign And Symptoms of Shoulder Pain
There are many causes of shoulder pain, and they all have their own unique set of symptoms. Depending on the cause of your shoulder pain you may experience:
- Your shoulder joint looks deformed.
- You can’t use your shoulder at all.
- The pain is intense.
- The shoulder is swelling suddenly.
- Your arm or hand is weak or numb.
- Shoulder movement become reduced.
People That Have Higher Risk Of Having Shoulder Pain
- Extreme sport such as rugby
- Work-related that involve repetitive movement of the shoulder
- Repetitive injury to the same side of shoulder
- Have injury to the scapula or rotator cuff muscles
- Have history of shoulder pain beforehand
- Slouched posture and rounded shoulder
Seek Immediate Medical Attention
Ask someone to drive you to urgent care or the emergency room if your shoulder pain is caused by an injury and is accompanied by:
- A joint that appears deformed
- Inability to use the joint or move your arm away from your body
- Intense pain
- Sudden swelling
Physiotherapy Treatment
One of the first treatment approaches involves physiotherapy and modifying your activities that make your pain worse.
Physiotherapy will aim to fix problems such as stiffness and weakness.
It will also include retraining the movements or activities related to your sport, work or everyday activities that were aggravating your shoulder so that wherever possible, you can get back to what you were doing.
Stretching and strengthening will be included as to develop strong build of muscles to support any activities that your shoulder will conduct.
Self-Care
To relieve minor shoulder pain you might try:
- Pain relievers
- Over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) may help.
- Rest
- Avoid using your shoulder in ways that cause or worsen pain.
- Ice
- Apply an ice pack to your painful shoulder for 15 to 20 minutes a few times each day.
* Often, self-care measures and a little time could be all you need to relieve your shoulder pain.
