What Are The Most Common Shoulder Problems?

The shoulder is a joint that combines muscles and tendons to allow a wide range of motion, from playing handball to lifting objects. However, increased mobility requires you to pay the price. Overusing your shoulder joint can lead to instability or impingement of the soft tissues in your shoulder. These shoulder complications cause pain that might be temporary or chronic, requiring medical intervention. Collaborating with the right specialist will lead to an accurate diagnosis of the root cause of your Lawrenceville shoulder pain and influence the treatment plan you will receive to restore your mobility. The following are the main types of shoulder problems:

·Bursitis

All the joints in your body contain small fluid-filled sacs that help reduce friction from gliding muscles and bones during movement. The more you use your shoulder joint, the higher your risk of developing inflammation and swelling of the bursa. This condition mainly occurs between the rotator cuff and acromion, causing subacromial bursitis. The inflammation and pain from this disease make moving your arm difficult.

·Tendinitis

Your muscles connect to bones via cords known as tendons. Your shoulder consists of four rotator cuffs and biceps tendons, which assist in shoulder motion and stability. Tendinitis is a condition that causes inflammation of the tendons.

Tendinitis can be acute or chronic. The former presents temporary symptoms that resolve without intervention. The latter is degenerative and requires medical intervention to restore shoulder structure and function.

·Tendon tears

Sudden injury, underlying degenerative diseases, aging, and long-term shoulder overuse can cause splitting and tearing of the cord that connects the muscles and bones in your shoulder. Tendon tears can be partial or lead to complete tendon detachment from bone, thus affecting shoulder mobility and stability.

·Impingement

Patients with shoulder impingement experience pain when lifting their arms away from their bodies. This symptom happens because the acromion presses on the soft underlying shoulder tissues. Lifting your arm causes the acromion to run on the rotator cuff tendons and bursa. This impingement may result in inflammatory diseases like bursitis and tendinitis, which limit shoulder movement.

·Instability

Shoulder dislocations happen when the ball of the upper arm bone moves from the shoulder socket during an injury. Subluxation is a partial shoulder dislocation. Patients may also experience complete dislocation where the ball comes out of the socket, causing pain and instability when raising their arm.

·Arthritis

Arthritis is a degenerative disease that affects joints and is one of the leading causes of shoulder pain. Osteoarthritis is the main type of arthritis, causing symptoms like swelling, pain, and stiffness in the shoulder. This condition develops slowly. Failure to detect osteoarthritis in time will cause the condition to worsen. Avoiding shoulder motion does not effectively manage arthritis. Instead, this strategy can cause soft tissue tightening and stiffness, leading to painful movement restriction.

Shoulder pain is a serious condition that can affect your well-being. Collaborate with a specialist at Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, P.C., for an accurate diagnosis of shoulder pain and receive appropriate treatment to restore your mobility.