Shoulder Pain
How to Relieve It for Good
Do you suffer from shoulder pain? Do you find yourself avoiding reaching overhead? We understand how debilitating it can be. But you don’t have to live in pain, and you can get your range of motion back. You can also prevent shoulder pain from recurring. We believe one of the first steps in finding shoulder pain relief is understanding your pain, how your shoulders work, and what’s causing the pain in the first place.

How your shoulders work
The shoulder joints are the most flexible joints in your body. Four muscles, together known as the rotator cuff, hold the head of your upper arm bone (humerus) in the shoulder socket. Within your shoulder joint, you also have cartilage, ligaments, and fluid-filled sacs called bursa that reduce friction between all of the moving parts of your shoulder.
Shoulder pain occurs when one or more parts of your shoulder are inflamed or injured.
Types of Shoulder Pain and Symptoms
When we say types of shoulder pain, we’re referring to the quality of the pain and the location of the pain. For example:
- Is the pain constant or just when you move a certain way?
- Did the pain start suddenly or come on slowly?
- Is the pain sharp or dull?
- What is the severity of the pain on a scale of 1 to 10?
- How limited is your range of movement?
- Where is the pain located? Front of shoulder? Between the shoulder and the neck? Is it shoulder blade pain? Does the pain radiate down your arm?
Your answers to these questions will help the doctor diagnose the problem and come up with a plan of care.
What Causes Shoulder Pain?
There are several common shoulder pain causes, many of which can be prevented. They include:
- Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis)
- Repetitive arm and shoulder movement (work or sports related)
- Improper lifting
- Sports Injury
- Tendinitis/Bursitis
- Rotator cuff tear or impingement
- Arthritis
- Nerve injury
- Dislocated shoulder
- Car accident injuries
- Poor posture
Ankle Pain FAQs
Q: When should I got to a doctor for shoulder pain?
A: If you have taken anti-inflammatory medication, rested the shoulder, and used ice packs for 3 days with no improvement after an injury, call the doctor. You should also see a doctor if:
- Pain lasts more than 2 weeks despite home care.
- You can’t move the shoulder or reach without pain.
- There is swelling or redness at the shoulder.
- The skin over the shoulder is red or blue.
- There is an obvious deformity of your shoulder or clavicle.
Q: What causes shoulder pain that radiates down the arm?
A: Shoulder impingement or a rotator cuff tear can cause this radiating pain.
Q: What is frozen shoulder?
A: Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis is a condition of the shoulder where the capsule of connective tissue that protects your shoulder joint thickens and tightens around the shoulder joint, restricting its movement. You may experience pain with any movement of your shoulder, and the pain may get worse at night.
Q: How do you treat shoulder pain?
A: You may be able to do self-management of shoulder pain at home by taking an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen and applying an ice pack to the sore shoulder. If the pain doesn’t start to recede or gets worse, you should see a doctor. Keep reading to learn more about diagnosing and treating shoulder pain.
How Cima Health Can Help
Cima Health provides restorative, lifelong solutions that target the root cause of your shoulder pain. Your care will start out with a comprehensive evaluation to assess your pain. We will also ask questions about your work and home life, lifestyle, and habits before making recommendations for an integrative plan of care. Together, we come up with conservative and alternative treatments that can help you achieve whole-body wellness and live pain-free for life.
Treating and preventing shoulder pain involves several treatment modalities, all of which you can receive in one location. They include:
- Chiropractic Care
- Joint Injections
- Physical Therapy
- Massage Therapy
- Physical Fitness
Let’s take a look at how each of these areas works together to provide you with pain relief and inspires you to make lifestyle changes to prevent back pain in the future.
Chiropractic Care
Before advising any treatment, the chiropractor will ask you many of the questions listed above in the type of pain and symptoms section. They will then perform a comprehensive physical evaluation, which may include range of motion tests, tests that indicate a problem with the rotator cuff, and more. Based on the results of the evaluation, they will come up with a plan of care that may involve providers from other areas of Cima Health.
Chiropractic care may provide nearly immediate shoulder pain relief, depending on the location and underlying cause of your pain. Spinal adjustments, manual therapy, dry needling, and Class IV laser treatment can all help relieve your pain. In addition, if your work or lifestyle habits are related to your shoulder pain, the chiropractor will advise making some changes to prevent your shoulder pain from recurring.
Our Palm Beach Gardens chiropractors are all highly trained professionals and include:
Working with shoulder pain
Working with shoulder pain can be difficult, if not impossible, depending on your occupation. Regular chiropractic adjustments can help tremendously. But if your job requires you to reach above your head or use vibrating tools, you may need work accommodations until your shoulder heals and you return to full duty.
Your chiropractor can recommend work restrictions to your employer if needed, such as restrictions on weight lifting and work that involves reaching above shoulder height. This is especially true if you are seeing the chiropractor as part of a workers’ compensation claim. Your doctor will discuss this with you as necessary.
Joint Injections
As part of your medical care your doctor may determine that you could benefit from a joint injection into your shoulder. The most likely injection you would receive would be a steroid (cortisone) injection, which can help reduce inflammation, providing pain relief while you heal.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy (PT), when combined with other treatments can also help with shoulder pain. The therapist will work with you to increase your range of motion gradually. They may use K-laser therapy as well to promote healing. You’ll learn stretches for shoulder pain as well as shoulder stretches you can progress to in order to strengthen your shoulder muscles.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is another modality we offer that can help relieve shoulder pain. And studies show it’s an effective treatment. The massage therapist will work closely with your physical therapist to perform the correct massage on your shoulder, arms, and back as necessary.
Physical Fitness
The last component of preventing shoulder pain is becoming physically fit. Our physical fitness team of personal trainers can help develop an exercise and shoulder strength training and conditioning program tailored to you. They can also inspire you to maintain an exercise regimen to keep you on the path to whole-body wellbeing.
The entire team at Cima Health works together to provide you with restorative, lifelong solutions.
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Book an Appointment
Shoulder pain can make it hard to do simple things like put away the dishes or style your hair. If you’re looking for a conservative treatment for shoulder pain, book an appointment today. One of our chiropractors will do a comprehensive examination to get to the root cause of your pain and develop an integrative plan of care to relieve your pain and inspire you to achieve whole-body wellness.