What is a shoulder dislocation?
The shoulder is made up of a ball and socket joint where the ball sits in a very shallow socket. This allows the arm to be very mobile and move in all directions, but also means that it is not very stable making it one of the easiest joints in the body to dislocate.
A dislocated shoulder happens when the bone in your upper arm moves partially or fully out of the shoulder socket. This normally happens if you fall on your arm heavily, commonly during contact sports like rugby or judo.
In younger people with very flexible joints, this can happen more easily with some people even able to voluntarily move their arm in and out of the joint.
Sometimes the shoulder will pop back into place by itself but sometimes people need help from a paramedic or in the Emergency Department.
Shoulder dislocations can lead to pain, swelling and bruising which may make it sore to move your arm and stop you from using it normally for a few weeks.
