Your rotator cuff is the collection of soft tissues that surround your shoulder joint that play an essential role mobilizing and stabilizing the joint. When one or more of these tendons, ligament or muscles end up partially or completely tearing, it can end up destabilizing the entire joint, leaving you at risk for a more significant rupture or a related injury like a shoulder dislocation.
Depending on the extent of your rotator cuff damage, it may not appear to be all that serious of an injury. You may only experience mild discomfort when your shoulder is manipulated in different directions, or you may have minimal movement restrictions, but that doesn’t mean you should just power on with daily activities like the injury doesn’t exist. It is incredibly important that you seek out early treatment for rotator cuff injuries, as putting off care can lead to a number of more serious issues. Below, we explain why early rotator cuff treatment is vital to the long-term health of your shoulder joint.
The Benefits Of Early Rotator Cuff Treatment
Rotator cuff injuries are quite common, especially in adults over the age of 50. That’s because these strong supportive tissues tend to weaken a bit as a result of the natural aging process. Decades of stress and repetitive actions can result in some natural degeneration, meaning it takes less strain on the shoulder joint for a small tear to develop somewhere. Falling with an outstretched arm or strain while lifting a heavy object can all result in rotator cuff injuries.
As we mentioned above, symptoms of a rotator cuff injury can vary based on the severity and location of the tissue tear. Patients with rotator cuff injuries tend to deal with symptoms like pain, stiffness, range of motion restrictions, tenderness and difficulty lifting their arm over their head. Even if your symptoms are minimal, it’s imperative that you seek out proactive treatments. Here’s why:
- Prevents Further Damage – Your rotator cuff is unlikely to get back to full strength without targeted treatment, so failing to treat the injury will leave your shoulder in a weakened state. This inherently leaves you with an increased risk of suffering further damage or a related injury like a shoulder dislocation.
- Function Preservation – Along a similar vein, the sooner you start treating the tissue damage, the more healthy tissue can be preserved, which ensures functional ability remains high.
- Higher Likelihood of Success – Like many medical conditions, the sooner the issue is caught and treatment begins, the higher the likelihood that the patient will be able to make a full recovery. Putting off treatment until symptoms have worsened may limit your ability to make a complete recovery.
- Faster Recovery – You’re also much more likely to make a faster recovery when a problem is treated in its infancy, because there is less damage and function that needs to be restored.
- Reduction In Need For Surgery – The sooner you seek treatment for a rotator cuff injury, the higher the likelihood that conservative treatment will solve your issue, in turn reducing your likelihood of needing a more costly and invasive corrective procedure.
The benefits to early treatment are bountiful and there are plenty of potential downsides for putting off treatment, so make the smart choice and seek out care from an experienced shoulder specialist if you end up suffering an injury to your rotator cuff. For more information on rotator cuff treatment, or to talk with a specialist about a different shoulder injury that you’re dealing with, reach out to Dr. Holloway and his team today at (865) 410-7887.
