Shoulder Pain Chiropractor
Shoulder pain is another common condition that we often treat, primarily with soft tissue work and other therapies. The shoulder joint is involved in nearly every movement involving the arms and can easily be injured. It is an inherently unstable joint, since it has up to 180 degrees of movement in several directions and it is not made up of a deep ball and socket joint like the hip that both limits motion and creates stability. The relatively shallow ball and socket of the shoulder is like a golf ball balancing on a tee or also described as a seal balancing a beach ball on its nose.
The shoulder is stabilized mainly by soft tissues, including the labrum, the joint capsule and the rotator cuff and other muscles surrounding the shoulder. The labrum slightly deepens the socket but its effects on stability are modest. The joint capsule is a set of ligaments that surround the shoulder and its effects depends upon how thick it is and whether or not it has been stretched out by our posture and activities. Many common activities like throwing a baseball or football or volleyball or doing bench presses or overhead presses behind the neck can easily overstretch this capsule. The main muscles/tendons that stabilize the shoulder joint are the rotator cuff muscles, which includes the supraspinatus across the top, the infraspinatus, and the teres minor across the rear, and the subscapularis across the front. The muscles that move and stabilize the scapulae also play a role since the while the ball is part of the humerus, the socket is part of the scapula known as the glenoid. This is why the shoulder joint is known as the glenohumeral joint.
Adhesions on the rotator cuff muscles and other shoulder muscles can lead to the tendons rubbing and creating inflammation and pain as you move your arm. We use specialized massage techniques to strip these adhesions off the tendons and other therapies to reduce inflammation and promote healing. We need to activate these rotator cuff muscles so that they fire at the correct time to stabilize and depress the upper arm (humerus) in the joint. If the rotator cuff muscles do not fire when you raise your arm, your humerus will slide upwards, leading to impingement of the rotator tendons and the biceps tendon. With regular treatment coming in several times per week for a number of weeks or months we can often get these muscles and tendons to work properly, thus relieving such pain and restoring proper function. If your insurance does not cover our specializedd soft tissue work, you will be asked to pay an additional copay.
