A diagnosis of a rotator cuff or labral shoulder tear can sound alarming, often leading people to believe surgery is their only path forward. If you’re in Hopkins, Minnetonka, or St. Louis Park and are facing this news, it’s important to know this: not all tears need surgery. At Redbird Wellness, we provide effective, conservative shoulder tear treatment that helps many patients find significant relief and return to their lives without going under the knife.
Rotator Cuff vs. Labral Shoulder Tear: Understanding the Difference
While both cause shoulder pain, they involve different structures:
- Rotator Cuff Tear: Involves an injury to the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize your shoulder joint.
- Labral Shoulder Tear: Involves a rip in the ring of cartilage (the labrum) that cups the shoulder socket.
The good news is that the initial, conservative approach to managing pain and restoring function is often very similar for both. The focus is on calming the tissues down and restoring efficient movement.
Our Approach: A Conservative First Line of Defense
For many non-severe tears, conservative care is not just a ‘wait-and-see’ approach; it’s an active and effective first line of defense. Our goal at our Hopkins clinic is simple: reduce your pain, improve your shoulder motion, and determine your true need for further intervention. We can do a lot for your shoulder through precise, hands-on methods.
Step 1: The Functional Diagnosis in Our Hopkins Clinic
Before we can treat, we need to understand. We start with a thorough clinical exam, using specific movement and strength tests to identify our targets. This helps us identify not just where it hurts, but why it’s hurting and what specific movements are compromised.
We prioritize your time and safety. We refer for imaging or a specialist consultation only if we discover signs of a severe tear (like high pain with very low function) or if you aren’t responding to our care as expected. This ensures we only escalate your care when it’s truly necessary.
Step 2: Your Personalized Conservative Treatment Plan
Based on our findings, we build a plan to address your pain and motion limitations directly. Here’s how our services create change:
- Cupping & MRT (IASTM): We use these techniques to decompress and release the affected connective tissue and muscles. This decreases pain, reduces the guarding and tension that inhibits movement, and helps the tissue remodel to improve elasticity.
- Dry Needling: This targets hyperactive, painful muscles in the shoulder, upper back, and even the neck. By quieting down this tension and inhibition, we allow for better, less painful movement patterns.
- Chiropractic Manipulation: We apply specific manipulation to the shoulder joint itself, as well as the surrounding joints in the neck and upper back. This improves overall joint motion and mechanics, taking stress off the injured area and allowing it to heal.
The Goal: Regaining Function, Not Just Chasing Pain
Our treatment isn’t just about making your shoulder feel better passively. The ultimate goal is to help you use your strength more efficiently. The pain from a shoulder tear often causes other muscles to experience problems. By combining our hands-on treatment with specific rehabilitative exercises, we retrain your shoulder and scapula to work together. This builds resilience and is the key to preventing re-injury long after you’ve left our clinic.
Find a Different Path for Your Shoulder Pain in Hopkins
You don’t have to resign yourself to a future of pain or surgery. Conservative care is a powerful, evidence-based option for many shoulder tears. If you’re looking for a different path for your shoulder pain in the western metro, the team at Redbird Wellness is here to help you explore it.
Ready to see what conservative shoulder tear treatment can do for you? Schedule your comprehensive evaluation at Redbird Wellness today.