Dr. Joshua John-Ram SchacterDr. Joshua Schacter, DO FAAOS, is America’s Holistic Orthopedic Surgeon, with nearly two decades of surgical expertise.

Shoulder Pain: MRI Damage vs No Symptoms Explained

27 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment Dr. Joshua John‑Ram Schacter explains that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) frequently detects structural abnormalities in shoulders that are not associated with pain. He cites epidemiological data showing that about 40 % of adults aged 50‑75 have a rotator‑cuff tear, and more than two‑thirds of those tears are asymptomatic. He argues that if everyone were screened with MRI, many would be labeled as having “damage” or even “surgical indications” despite having no symptoms, highlighting the risk of over‑diagnosis and unnecessary surgical interventions.

So did you know that MRIs often show damage in pain free people? Let's take shoulders, for example. Did you know that 40% of people aged 50 to 75 will have a rotator cuff tear? And that over two thirds of those rotator cuff tears actually have no symptoms? So if we MRI'd everybody in the country, what we would find is that a lot of them have what we would call damage. Some of them even have what we would call indications for a surgery, but it doesn't bother them what's going on there.