Physical Therapist (Pediatric) Questions Physical Therapy

How does physical therapy help a dislocated shoulder?

My 15-year-old son dislocated his shoulder while pitching in his baseball game and his doctor is referring him to physical therapy to help heal it. How will this help him?

4 Answers

Physical therapy is very important to help stabilize the injured tissue and help to strengthen the tissues that lead to the shoulder allowing dislocation.

Under the age of 18, there is over a 90% chance of dislocation again.

It would be smart to consider an MRI, to determine the severity of the damage to the ligaments and see or if there are any fractures.

While Surgery is an option, I prefer the non-surgical approach with whole bone marrow injection. Which is one of my specialties and very effective in helping to not only heal the injury but also prevent redislocation/reinjury.
Return range of motion, strength, and function.
Muscle control helps a lot in the shoulder, but you still need to see a sports doctor.
This is often the treatment of choice for a first time shoulder dislocation and your sons age group. Strengthening the muscles that help keep the shoulder in the proper position can help prevent further dislocations. However recurrence of another dislocation in his age group is very high