What alternatives are there for shoulder replacement?

Conservative Rx: Assuming one has arthritis in the shoulder, the options are: surgical (replacement) or non-surgical. The non-surgical treatments include antiinflammatory medications, steroid injections, pain medications, therapy and other alternative treatments such as chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, etc. Steroids and therapy tend to be the primary traditional non-operative treatments.

Shoulder arthritis: There are any treatments for shoulders arthritis. Avoidance of painful activities, nsaids, injections of steroid, and injections of viscosupplements. The reason, however, there earnest many shoulder replacements are done is because the other treatments listed above fail to provide adequate relief of symptoms. Good luck!

Alternatives: Others here have done a good job of explaining alternatives. A few additional points. I have found therapy not to be very helpful. Often therapy is painful if you are at a stage that you need shoulder replacement. And unless you can really work through a lot of pain it may not be worth the time or effort. Fish oil is a good natural anti inflammatory that some people find helpful

Not many.: If you have bone on bone shoulder arthritis, there's probably no other surgery that would help you.

Shoulder replacement: physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, cortisone injections