Common Causes For Shoulder Pain

Shoulders are the joints where the humerus (upper-arm bones), scapula (shoulder blades), and clavicle (collarbone) meet. In the rounded sockets of the scapula, the humerus fits on each side of our shoulder. A rotator cuff is a group of four tendons and muscles that covers and protects each humerus and help us move and lift our arm. The rotator cuff helps move our shoulders forward and backwards.  

As our shoulders have a versatile range of movements, if anything goes wrong, they will not move freely, and there will be a great deal of discomfort and pain. Your shoulder can be injured by playing sports, repetitive movements, or performing manual labour. 

What Causes Your Shoulder Pain?

Many factors and conditions contribute to our shoulder pain, while the most general cause is rotator cuff tendinitis. In this condition, tendons get swollen. 

Sometimes there is no direct injury to the shoulder, but an injury to the neck or biceps causes pain in the shoulders. This type of pain is termed referred pain, and generally, it does not worsen when you move your shoulder. 

Other causes of shoulder pain are following;

• Torn Cartilage: if you injure your cartilage that covers the rim of your shoulder joint, you will feel pain whenever you move your arm or absorbs a lot of force. 
• Torn Rotator Cuff: your rotator cuff got torn due to overuse or in a fall. It shows wear and tears as you grow old. 
• Osteoarthritis: where it affects other bones and joints, shoulder joint get affected also. It affects the cartilage through stiffness and causes pain.
• Broken shoulder or arm bone: your bone can crack or break if you take a hard hit or fall. Mostly clavicle and humerus get affected. A broken collarbone makes your shoulder sag, and you might not be able to lift your arm.
• Osteophytes: in this condition, small, smooth piece of your bone rub up against each other to cause tendinitis or rotator cuff tear.
• A pinched nerve in the shoulder or neck: this condition is also known as “impingement”. In this case, there will be severe swelling and pain.
• Dislocated shoulder: if you pull back or rotate back your shoulder too hard, then your arm’s top might pop out of the socket, and there will be severe pain and weakness in your shoulder.
• Frozen shoulder: your joints will be limited in this condition. Adhesions will build up when the shoulder is not in use due to an injury or surgery.
• Heart attack: when your shoulder hurts a lot, and you also feel tightness and severe pain in the chest, you immediately need to see a doctor.

Diagnosis of Shoulder Pain

Your doctor will do a physical exam to check any structural problem in your neck or spine. Then they will check the flexibility of your arms by rotating them in 90 and 180 degrees. After that, your doctor will perform different tests like X-rays, MRI scan and CT scan to get a closer look. 

At Align Grapevine, we have a team of highly skilled and professional massage therapist, physician and chiropractor who help you get rid of your shoulder pain. If you are suffering from shoulder or neck pain and looking out for an expert chiropractor, contact Align Grapevine to get quick relief from muscle tenderness.