Shoulder Pain Management in Suwanee
People often take shoulder health for granted until shoulder pain or limited mobility makes it difficult to work, do chores, or play with their kids. Getting the right shoulder pain management and rehabilitation treatment plan can help you regain your strength and range of motion.
Chiropractic adjustments can be hugely beneficial for the alleviation of certain types of shoulder pain, but they’re not the only solution. Optimum Health Rehab offers a comprehensive suite of physical rehabilitation and shoulder pain management services that can help patients regain their range of motion and restore their strength.
Diagnosing the Cause of Your Shoulder Pain Is Key
The team at Optimum Health Rehab utilizes decades of combined experience in injury care and an array of diagnostic equipment to pinpoint the root cause of your shoulder pain. We then recommend a customized chiropractic, rehabilitation, and pain management plan.
Shoulders are a complicated part of the human body, and many different things can go wrong. The best treatment for one patient may not be appropriate for another, which is why you should seek out pain management and injury treatment clinics that don’t rely on one-size-fits-all approaches to shoulder pain.
Whether your shoulder pain is from a car accident, sports injury, repetitive stress injury from your job, or is caused by a degenerative joint condition, our diverse array of therapy options can ensure our specialists can help. If you have pain or discomfort when using your shoulder, please give us a call for a consultation.
What Does Shoulder Pain Treatment Usually Entail?
Sometimes patients tell us that they never noticed how much they used their shoulder until they started having shoulder pain! This type of pain can be complicated by the necessity for shoulder motion, and many patients only feel shoulder pain when they extend the shoulder in certain ways. Your range of motion may be significantly restricted by shoulder pain, or you might be suffering ancillary symptoms like shoulder weakness, tingling sensations in your arms or hands, and radiating pain.
Your first visit will likely be with chiropractors and medical professionals who will ascertain the root cause and severity of your shoulder pain. The medical doctors on staff may order imaging to properly diagnose the injury.
Treatments could include manual chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy techniques. Patients may also be prescribed special stretching techniques and exercises, which should generally be regimented to restore strength without exacerbating injuries.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation are two of the greatest tools you can use to strengthen the shoulder, joints, and muscles. Once a proper diagnosis has been made, a treatment plan can be developed that is unique to the individual and their needs.
Optimum Health Rehab combines chiropractic and physical rehabilitation treatments, which sets our clinics apart from other Suwanee chiropractors and pain management doctors. We frequently prescribe medication in conjunction with more natural therapies. Treatment for shoulder pain may combine conventional methods as well as holistic and allopathic treatment plans.
One thing we don’t offer is invasive surgery. Our goal is always to help patients overcome shoulder pain and regain a full range of motion without needing to go under the knife.
Some therapies we could recommend based on the results of your diagnostic tests include:
Chiropractic Adjustment
If you think chiropractic care is only for back pain, think again. Misaligned or compressed areas of the spine can cause referred pain in various parts of the body, including the shoulder, but chiropractic adjustment may help.
In some cases, the pain originates in the shoulder joint, and your chiropractor can adjust the shoulder. It’s also very common to see injuries or misalignments of the neck or ribcage cause shoulder pain, and adjustments are effective at treating these as well.
One example of a common shoulder problem is a condition called shoulder impingement, which is often caused by overuse of the shoulder. When it occurs, the shoulder blade, also called the acromion, rubs up against the rotator cuff, a cluster of muscles and tendons that keeps the shoulder joint in place and functioning. As the rubbing continues, the joint becomes painful and inflamed, and movement is soon difficult. Some patients worry that they will need surgery or strong painkillers to get through this injury, but in many situations, our chiropractic adjustments help to provide pain relief. In combination with other treatments like exercises, it may even resolve the problem completely.
If you’ve experienced shoulder pain after a car accident, it’s possible your pain is related even if it didn’t appear until several days after the car crash. Some people initially think they are all right after an accident, but the pain may occur later. Neck injuries like whiplash are very common, especially in rear-end accidents or any collision where the driver tried to stop the car suddenly and you may have been thrown forward, snapping your head back and forth. Although this most commonly causes typical whiplash symptoms of neck pain and stiffness, sometimes it can lead to referred pain in the shoulder. Another issue is that seatbelts often cross one of the shoulders, and when the seatbelt suddenly pulls tight during a collision, it can put a strain on the shoulder or cause injury. If your shoulder pain came on after a car accident, chiropractic care and adjustments may be very beneficial in relieving your pain.
Regenerative Medicine
Spinal misalignment isn’t the only possible cause of shoulder pain. Sometimes a patient may have a persistent problem with one or more of the eight muscles, four tendons, and three ligaments in the shoulder. Like the shoulder joint itself, these tissues face a lot of strain as we go about our everyday lives, lifting and carrying things. Additionally, acute injuries from an accident or a sports activity can tear or damage the delicate muscles and tendons in your shoulder.
When other treatments haven’t provided enough pain relief for a soft tissue injury in the shoulder, we may try a platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, injection. This consists of plasma taken from the patient’s own blood, which is separated into both platelet-rich and platelet-poor plasma. During the same visit, we take the platelet-rich plasma and inject it into the shoulder. Its bio proteins and growth hormones speed up the healing process, and many patients finally get the relief they need without surgery.
Neurology Services
Some shoulder pain can be caused by nerve compression or damage, rather than an injury to the joint or muscles. The nerves may be in the spinal cord, the shoulder, or in between. Our Optimum Health Rehab specialist will perform a neurological evaluation, diagnose any nerve difficulties that could be causing your pain, and set out a treatment plan to address them. This may involve several other therapies, including spinal manipulation, physical therapy, or pain management injections.
Myofascial Release
Myofascial tissue envelops the muscles, including those in the shoulder. Normally this tissue is flexible and bends as needed so your muscles can move freely, but sometimes stress, overuse, or injury can cause it to stiffen. These rigid areas of the myofascial tissue often lead to pain in the shoulder joint.
In a myofascial release treatment, one of our experienced massage therapists will gently palpate the myofascial tissue, looking for these stiff, tense areas. When they find one, the therapist will then massage and stretch the tissue until the tension is resolved.
Deep Tissue Massage Therapy
This is another type of massage therapy that may be used to treat shoulder injuries and pain. Here the massage therapist’s goal is to apply firm pressure to deeper muscles in or near the shoulders. This compression improves blood flow to the area and can hasten the healing process. Many patients report that their pain and stiffness improve quickly after one session, while others experience benefits after a few sessions.
Visit One of Our Georgia Clinics for Shoulder Pain Management
Are You Ready to Tackle Your Shoulder Pain? Call Optimum Health Rehab Today
The chiropractic and medical team at Optimum Health Rehab is committed to developing shoulder pain treatment plans that help Suwanee residents restore a full range of pain-free motion. Before you resort to invasive surgeries with long recovery periods or pharmaceutical solutions with potentially severe side effects, schedule a consultation with our chiropractic team. Call us at (678) 546-0550 or fill out our form to schedule an appointment.