Treatments And Technologies We Use To Treat Shoulder Pain
There are many different ways to treat shoulder pain, and it’s just as well because we don’t all respond to the same stuff.
The ultimate key to successful treatment of shoulder pain is working with a team who are willing to take a sufficiently flexible approach, and trial a number of different therapies to see what works best on your specific case.
Low Energy Laser Therapy is the application of specific deeply penetrating light waves to a painful area. Light with a wavelength in the red to near infrared region of the spectrum (660nm–905nm) is generally employed because these wavelengths have the ability to penetrate skin, and soft/hard tissues.
A great many clinical trials have shown this type of treatment has a meaningful effect on pain, inflammation and tissue repair. In our experience people with shoulder pain often experience immediate improvements in their pain after laser sessions.
Shockwave Therapy is a non-surgical – non-drug-based – scientifically approved therapy that is widely used as a pain treatment. There have been literally hundreds of studies that support the use of shockwave therapy for a very wide range of pain complaints.
Shockwave Therapy was originally developed for its application as a non-invasive treatment of kidney stones. We use a gentler form of the same technology to break up deep muscle knots and tracts of scar tissue in the shoulder. For more information on shockwave therapy visit our shockwave homepage here.
It should go without saying that we have a tendency to hold tension in our shoulders. This kind of tension Is a major contributor to many cases of shoulder pain. By using specific stretch techniques for the muscles in the shoulder you can often release a great deal of tension from the shoulder and shoulders. Post Isometric stretches are a specific style of stretching that utilises your muscle’s tendency to relax after it has contracted strongly.
Most shoulders with persistent or recurring pain are full of ‘pressure points’ or myofascial trigger points (the sore spots you feel in muscles when you get a deep massage). At Featherston St. Pain Clinic we consider ourselves experts at finding and releasing the most stubborn trigger points. It’s not always fun to have done (we know that ourselves) but boy can it help with persistent shoulder pain; when it’s done properly!
Acupuncture can be extremely helpful in the management of many shoulder pain cases. We don’t approach acupuncture in the traditional way where needles are placed in a wide no. of locations, we generally focus directly on the area of pain.
Acupuncture aims to promote blood flow, release pressure points in muscle and reduce pain signals. Needles are placed very superficially around the area of pain and we generally leave them in for around 10 minutes, depending on your body’s tolerance to them. If acupuncture works for your shoulder pain, you will usually start to feel the benefits within the first 2-3 sessions.
Your spinal column is made up of a series of bones, these bones are able to move and flex because of the discs and small joints that connect them. There is actually only a small amount of movement at each ‘segment’ of the spine but when you add all those little units up you have a reasonably mobile column.
The facet joints (think small knuckle sized weight bearing joints) in your spine are a prime suspect for generating shoulder pain. It’s these facet joints that are often locked when you can’t move your neck and shoulder without pain. If these little joints that get injured when you get a whiplash. The majority of shoulder pain sufferers have one or more locked up, facet joints in their upper back. Spinal mobilisation or spinal manipulations mobilise the facet joints and restore movement to your shoulder and can bring great relief.
Heaps of people find the application of ice packs for the treatment of their shoulder pain can prove to be very beneficial. Ice works by interrupting pain signals within the nerve, stimulates the activity of blood vessels, and reduces both inflammatory and pain chemistry in the shoulder.
One of the most common questions we get asked is whether heat or ice is better. Nine times out of ten ice is a better option than heat when you have pain. Heat can be a bit of a tricky one because it does often feel soothing at the time. Sometime after heat application however you may have more pain than you might otherwise have had.
A large number of people suffer with stubborn shoulder pains caused in part by old unhealed injuries. These injuries can come from almost any historical incident of shoulder or head trauma. One of the long term repercussions of unresolved shoulder trauma is scar tissue.
Scraping gently in and around the connective tissues of the shoulder using a blunt scraping tool is the basic method behind how we manage scar tissue in the shoulder. Guasha is the old Chinese name for this technique but there are many others from different cultures and there are more modern techniques like Graston Technique. The idea with all of them is to break up and assist with remodelling of microscopic scar tissue adhesions, which are a major cause of shoulder pain.
Cupping massage or cupping therapy has been used for thousands of years by multiple global cultures and not only is it still around for good reason, it is currently undergoing a powerful resurgence.
Using suction cups for the treatment for shoulder pain increases blood flow in the area, stretches the fascia, can bring massive amounts of relief and leaves funny marks that your friends and family will assume are bruises. The most common myth around cupping is that it releases toxins, the actual cause of the marks cupping leaves is deoxygenated blood that has been drawn to the surface.
Percussion has been an established component of soft tissue release, massage and even respiratory healthcare for thousands of years and it is no less effective today. Percussion massage as treatment for shoulder pain generally involves the use of mechanical massage devices. It is designed to break up scar tissue and promote blood flow within the soft tissues. Percussion is generally at its best when used in combination with the other treatments for shoulder pain like those in this list.
Prevention of shoulder pain usually means longer term strengthening of the muscles that maintain your posture.
Time is seldom kind to the stubborn and recurring pains that affect us throughout life. The niggly shoulder pain that comes and goes in our 30’s and 40’s often becomes the unrelenting pain that destroys our basic quality of life in our 70’s and 80’s. We take the potential longer term repercussions of unrehabilitated pain conditions seriously. Prevention is not for everyone… but we believe in it passionately and it’s a major part of our offering.