Frozen Shoulder Treatment in Bromley
Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is a problem with the capsule — the sleeve of tissue that wraps around the shoulder joint. It becomes inflamed, thickens and then contracts, so the joint physically loses room to move. The first phase is dominated by pain, particularly at night; the stiffness follows. The give-away is that movement is lost in every direction, including when somebody else lifts your arm for you. Most cases begin with no injury at all.
The people who come to the Bromley clinic with this are typically between forty and sixty, more often women, and usually several months in. Many have been treating it as a rotator cuff problem. It becomes clear when we try to turn the arm outwards with the elbow tucked in: in a frozen shoulder that movement is blocked, and no amount of relaxing changes it.
How to tell if that is what you have
The pattern is distinctive once you know what separates it from its lookalikes.
- Movement restricted in every direction, especially turning the arm outwards and reaching up behind your back.
- The restriction is still there when someone else moves the arm for you — the key difference from a rotator cuff problem.
- Night pain, and an inability to lie on that side.
- Everyday things become impossible: a coat, a seatbelt, a back pocket, fastening a bra.
Rotator cuff tendinopathy hurts within a particular arc of movement but leaves passive range largely intact, and the main problem is weakness rather than stiffness. Shoulder arthritis can feel similar and is separated by an X-ray, usually in an older age group.
What actually causes it
The capsule goes through inflammation and then fibrosis, laying down thickened, contracted tissue in much the way scar tissue behaves. Why it starts is often genuinely unknown. It can follow a minor injury, an operation, or any period when the arm has been kept still in a sling. It is clearly more common in people with diabetes or thyroid disease.
It moves through phases: a painful freezing phase of roughly two to nine months, a frozen phase where the pain settles but movement is at its most limited, and a thawing phase where range gradually returns.
How we treat it at the clinic
An honest starting point: no hands-on treatment reliably shortens a frozen shoulder, and anyone promising to unfreeze it quickly is overselling. What treatment does is make the months more bearable and stop everything around the shoulder seizing up in sympathy.
Treatment starts with an assessment, largely to confirm the pattern and rule out the conditions that mimic it. After that, deep tissue massage to the shoulder girdle, neck and upper back relieves the secondary tightness that builds over months of guarding, and medical acupuncture — needling the muscle itself for anatomical reasons — often helps with pain and night discomfort, though the evidence here is mixed.
The exercise programme matters most: gentle, frequent range-of-movement work kept within tolerance, progressing to strength as the shoulder allows. We will also tell you when it is worth asking your GP about a corticosteroid injection, which has the best evidence of anything in the painful early phase.
What you can do yourself
- Do little and often. Five minutes of gentle range work several times a day achieves more than one long session.
- Work into discomfort, not into sharp pain. Forcing a frozen shoulder usually sets it back.
- Sort out sleep: lie on the good side with a pillow supporting the affected arm in front of you.
- If you have diabetes, keeping blood sugar well controlled appears to matter for how this runs.
How long it takes
This is the slow one. A frozen shoulder typically runs for one to three years from start to finish, and that is with good management. Most people get most of their movement back. A proportion are left with some permanent restriction, usually in turning the arm outwards, which they adapt to.
Treatment here is about comfort and function along the way rather than a finish line. If pain is severe or progress stalls, we will send you back to your GP. Options beyond us include an injection, a referral for physiotherapy, hydrodilatation, or occasionally a surgical opinion.
When to see a doctor instead
Some shoulder problems need a doctor rather than a therapy appointment. See your GP, or go to A&E, if:
- The shoulder stopped moving immediately after a fall or heavy impact — a fracture or dislocation needs imaging.
- You cannot lift the arm at all following an injury, particularly over the age of sixty.
- The shoulder is hot, red and swollen, or you have a fever — a joint infection needs same-day attention.
- There is unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, or a lump around the shoulder or collarbone.
- You have numbness or weakness spreading into the hand.
Shoulder or arm pain that comes on with exertion alongside chest tightness, breathlessness or sweating should be treated as a possible heart problem — call 999.
Book frozen shoulder treatment in Bromley
The clinic is at Carlton Chambers, 5 Station Road, Bromley BR2 0EY. The entrance is the red side gate to the right of the building. We are a three-minute walk from Shortlands station, and we see people from Beckenham, Shortlands, Hayes, West Wickham, Chislehurst, Petts Wood and Orpington.
Call 07896 257328 to talk through whether treatment is worth it at your stage, or book an appointment online. Our prices are listed in full, and directions are on our location page.
Written by Dharam Vyas, sports therapist and clinic director at SMSM Therapy, Bromley.