Shoulder pain treatment Glendale: plain answers and next steps

Different kinds of soreness feel different

The rotator cuff is four small muscles and their tendons that hold your shoulder steady. Trouble there often hurts during lifting or reaching above your head. Arthritis can bring an ache deep in the joint and make movement harder. With a frozen shoulder, stiffness keeps increasing even when your other hand moves the sore arm. A fall can tear a tendon or move the joint out of place.

How the trouble started gives your doctor useful information.

Gentle use and simple care often help

Ease up on the lift or reach that brings on the ache, but don’t stop using the arm. Gentle motion and regular strength work often help more than complete rest. An anti-inflammatory medicine, such as ibuprofen tablets or diclofenac gel, may ease soreness. Those medicines aren’t safe with every health problem or prescription. Ask your doctor or pharmacist before trying one.

Give the shoulder time to respond.

A scan does not choose your care

Shoulder scans often show worn tendons or small tears in arms that still work well. That’s why an X-ray or another scan must be read with the exam. Where it hurts, what you can’t do, and whether you’ve lost strength also matter. Don’t pay for care based only on words in a report.

The exam puts the scan in context.

An exam helps when soreness keeps returning

If the ache keeps returning, ruins sleep, or leaves the arm weaker, it’s time for an appointment. The clinician will ask how it began and which daily tasks now hurt. Motion and strength are tested during the exam before you discuss an X-ray or other care. You’ll know why each next step was offered.

A careful exam can spare you wasted time and money.

Sources

1. Medicare's national coverage policy covers autologous platelet-rich plasma ONLY for chronic non-healing diabetic, pressure and/or venous wounds, and only within an approved coverage-with-evidence-development study. There is no Medicare national coverage for PRP in shoulder osteoarthritis or rotator cuff disease, which is why these injections are billed to the patient directly.

   Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Autologous Platelet-rich Plasma (Coverage with Evidence Development). CMS.gov, 2024.

2. FDA states verbatim that stem cell, stromal vascular fraction, umbilical cord blood, Wharton's jelly, amniotic fluid and exosome products 'have [not] been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, such as osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain.' The only FDA-approved stem cell products in the United States are blood-forming (hematopoietic progenitor) cells from umbilical cord blood, approved only for disorders of blood production, and there are currently NO FDA-approved exosome products.

   U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes. FDA (Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research), 2020.

3. The GRASP trial randomized 708 adults with a rotator cuff disorder to progressive exercise (up to 6 sessions), a single best-practice advice session, or either of those preceded by a corticosteroid injection. Over 12 months there was no evidence of a difference in Shoulder Pain and Disability Index between progressive exercise and one advice session (adjusted mean difference -0.66, 99% CI -4.52 to 3.20), and no evidence of a difference between having a corticosteroid injection and not having one.

   Hopewell S, et al. — Progressive exercise compared with best practice advice, with or without corticosteroid injection, for the treatment of patients with rotator cuff disorders (GRASP): a multicentre, pragmatic, 2 × 2 factorial, randomised controlled trial.. Lancet, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00846-1.

4. In a nationally representative Finnish population sample of 602 adults aged 41-76 who had bilateral 3-Tesla shoulder MRI regardless of symptoms, rotator cuff abnormalities were found in 98.7% of participants (25% tendinopathy, 62% partial-thickness tear, 11% full-thickness tear). Abnormalities were present in 96% of ASYMPTOMATIC shoulders. Only full-thickness tears were more common in symptomatic shoulders, and that difference all but disappeared after adjustment (absolute difference 0.8%, 95% CI -3.4% to 6.0%).

   Ibounig T, et al. — Incidental Rotator Cuff Abnormalities on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.. JAMA Intern Med, 2026. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.7903.