Reduce Shoulder Pain from Arthritis with Metro Pain Centers
Metro Pain Centers provide effective pain management solutions for patients with conditions like arthritis. Anyone can develop osteoarthritis in various joints due to overuse and other habits that gradually wear out your cartilage. While there is currently no cure for arthritis, there are steps that patients with shoulder arthritis can take to minimize its effect on their life.
At Metro Pain Centers, we have teams of shoulder arthritis doctors, pain management experts, and other medical staff that can provide long-term pain relief for your condition. Rather than experiencing debilitating pain from your degenerative condition, you can manage the pain and continue to live a fulfilling life as you adapt to overcome your shoulder arthritis.
If you’re experiencing shoulder pain and other symptoms of arthritis on one or both shoulders, schedule an appointment with Metro Pain Centers. You can speak to a shoulder arthritis specialist that can help you diagnose and treat your condition and then provide a customized treatment plan on how to best manage your symptoms.
Understanding Shoulder Arthritis
Your upper arm bone and shoulder blade are connected together by cartilage to form your shoulder joint. Cartilage can reduce friction and cushion your joints during stress. But with factors like aging, overuse, and an autoimmune disorder, your cartilage can start to degrade. Eventually, worn cartilage can cause bones to rub against each other, which can damage your bones, trigger pain, and develop bone spurs in its place, which causes even more pain.
This can happen in joints like your shoulders, which has a wider range of motions. Whether it’s caused by rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, the pain can be debilitating and hinder your ability to freely move your shoulder joints. There is currently no cure for both rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, but you can treat your condition to manage its symptoms and prevent your shoulder arthritis from getting worse.
Causes and Symptoms of Shoulder Arthritis
Shoulder arthritis can come in three forms. The most common one is shoulder osteoarthritis, which is a degenerative joint disease often caused by overuse of the shoulder joints or by aging. If left untreated, your condition can gradually worsen. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that causes inflammation on your joint linings, causing pain and wearing out your cartilage. And traumatic arthritis can be developed if you’ve experienced injuries like fractures, dislocations, or bacterial infection on your shoulder that affected the condition of your cartilage.
The main symptom of shoulder arthritis is pain around one or both shoulders, which can worsen when performing strenuous activities. Osteoarthritis and traumatic arthritis may affect one or both shoulder joints, while rheumatoid arthritis typically affects both. Other symptoms can vary depending on the type of arthritis experienced, including:
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Pain when applying pressure to the shoulder area
- Crepitus, which can be audible cracking or the feeling of grinding when moving your shoulder
- (For rheumatoid arthritis) Tenderness, swelling, fever, and other inflammation symptoms
Shoulder arthritis may also be a symptom of a broken rotator cuff tear. If a torn tendon in the area is rubbing against your cartilage, it can cause osteoarthritis by wearing out the cartilage.
Shoulder Arthritis Treatment and Effective Pain Relief at Metro Pain Centers
If you suspect you have shoulder arthritis, schedule an appointment with your doctor. Some of the ways a shoulder doctor can rule out other conditions and diagnose shoulder arthritis is with x-rays, MRI scans, and laboratory tests on your blood and the lubricating joint fluid to rule out other diseases.
Treatment is necessary for managing arthritis. If left untreated, your body may continue to wear out your cartilage, which can continue to cause bone spurs and additional pain on your shoulder. Some of the methods used to treat shoulder arthritis include:
- Medications – over-the-counter pain relievers, corticosteroids (oral or injection), disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
- Physical therapy – exercises to improve the range of motion and strengthen muscles and joints.
- Assistive devices – splints, braces, and other assistive devices to ease pressure off your shoulder.
- Lifestyle modifications – weight loss through a proper diet and regular exercise can ease the pressure on joints.
- Shoulder surgery – surgical treatment from an orthopedic specialist is usually a last resort if all other non-surgical options are ineffective. A surgeon may perform joint repair or joint replacement for shoulder replacement surgery.
At Metro Pain Centers, we provide our patients with customized treatment plans tailored to their condition, lifestyle, and needs. Each plan uses various science-based methods that can help you manage your pain and adapt to your condition.
Why You Need Metro Pain Centers’ Treatment Plans
If left untreated, shoulder arthritis can continue to degrade and wear out your shoulder socket’s cartilage. This can make your condition worse, which can enhance the pain and make recovery and living with your condition more complex. This is why, as soon as you see the signs of shoulder arthritis, it’s best to tackle it as soon as possible to help you manage the symptoms and prevent your shoulder joints from getting worse.
A lot of your everyday movement involves moving your shoulder joints. When you experience debilitating pain, it can prevent you from performing at your best or even doing your everyday tasks. At Metro Pain Centers, we can help minimize the effect shoulder arthritis has on your life by minimizing the pain’s frequency, duration, and intensity. Our experienced staff of medical professionals provides effective customized treatment plans, and because of this, many of our patients go on to live their best lives in spite of their arthritis.
FAQs About Shoulder Arthritis
Q: Who is at risk of shoulder arthritis?
A: Osteoarthritis is mostly seen in adults aged 50 years old and above. It’s also possible to develop shoulder arthritis through overuse of the joint. You can also get it from traumatic injuries (like fractures and shoulder dislocation) and genetic autoimmune disorders.
Q: What’s the outlook for patients living with shoulder arthritis?
A: Shoulder arthritis can worsen over time if not managed with a proper treatment plan. Many of our patients seek our help to stop their condition from progressing and manage their painful symptoms. By adapting to their condition, they’re able to live their best lives without letting their shoulder arthritis hinder their occupation and interests.
Q: How do you make treatment plans for patients with shoulder arthritis?
A: Our customized treatments are based on a number of factors, including your age, the severity of your condition, your lifestyle, and other important criteria that can affect your pain management. We use a combination of multi-faceted methods to help you adapt, re-learn, and overcome the pain associated with arthritis. Surgical procedures from an orthopedic surgeon like total shoulder replacement is usually a last option if a patient doesn’t find non-surgical options effective.
Get a Treatment Plan for Shoulder Arthritis Today at Metro Pain Centers
Debilitating shoulder pain from shoulder arthritis can prevent you from functioning at your best, making everyday tasks much more difficult to complete. If you have shoulder arthritis, it’s best to seek treatment as soon as possible to prevent your condition from getting worse.
With Metro Pain Centers, you can receive a customized treatment plan that targets your pain while adapting to lifestyle changes to minimize your arthritis’ effect on your lifestyle. Schedule an appointment with one of our shoulder arthritis doctors today to receive an effective pain management solution.
