Can Chiropractic Help Me With My Shoulder Pain?

Shoulder pain is a very common symptom we find in our Plano Chiropractic office, as we spend more and more time in front of a computer and at our desk. You are probably at a computer right now or perhaps your phone reading this article. Take note of your shoulders, do you see how your shoulders are protracted frontward and your head is over the keyboard, which is call forward head carriage because you carrying your head forward from the normal line. The muscle that makes the shoulders protract forward are the pectoralis minor muscles which are a tightness prone muscle and conversely the rhomboids which counteract the pectoralis minor muscles are weakness prone muscles. The scalene muscles are the muscle group in the neck that is responsible for forward head carriage and tend to tighten up in the neck causing pain and compressing anatomy.

The best way to treat shoulder pain is to find the pain generating tissues, where is the dysfunction coming from? In my experience we tend to find that shoulder pain is usually caused by dysfunction in the cervical spine as well as in the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle muscles. The problem typically involves the cervical spine first, as the cervical vertebra can get misaligned and cause improper nerve impulses to the shoulder muscles which than function improperly and the improper muscles cause the shoulder joint itself to have improper biomechanics due to the muscles not working in synergy during normal motion. Treatment would include removing the cervical dysfunction in the cervical spine as well as stretching the tightness prone muscles of the scalenes and pectoris minor. Equally it is also important to strengthen the rhomboid muscles in the back to stop the shoulder protraction. Once the muscles are working proper the shoulder joint itself should start to work with correct biomechanics which will help the pain. If the pain is still present pain modalities can help to easy the progression along.