Shoulder pain is a common issue that needs accurate description to your doctor, but it’s important to be precise with your doctor about its location. Patients often refer to pain between their shoulder blades as shoulder discomfort, which can result in incorrect imaging. This is why it’s crucial to pinpoint the exact location of your pain.
When present, pain may make lying on the shoulder or reaching overhead difficult. Interestingly, people over 50 often have tendon damage but surprisingly no discomfort.
Common Causes of Shoulder Aches
Bursitis and tendonitis are the most prevalent causes of shoulder discomfort, resulting from inflammation of the bursa and rotator cuff tendons. Bursitis involves inflammation of a small fluid-filled sac called a bursa which lies between the head of the humerus and the end of the collar bone. Tendonitis most commonly affects the supraspinatus tendon but other tendons can be involved. Further causes of shoulder irritation include frozen shoulder and acromioclavicular joint arthritis but those are less common.
Treatment Options
At Farrelly Chiropractic, we use exercise, Active Release Technique, gentle manipulation and brain remapping to treat shoulder soreness. It’s important to avoid overprotecting the shoulder and you should continue using it through a pain-free range. A little discomfort is acceptable but try and avoid extreme pain.
Severe discomfort that won’t subside may require a cortisone injection from your doctor. Otherwise, we’re happy to evaluate and offer an opinion.
