Why Is My Collarbone Popping?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsCausesWhen to Get HelpDiagnosisTreatmentCoping

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Causes

When to Get Help

Diagnosis

Treatment

Coping

Popping sensations in your collarbone (clavicle) are fairly common. You may feel it when you reach certain directions or move your arm and shoulder. You may hear a “pop” or “click.”

Often, collarbone popping is a sign of a problem with the bones or joints that make up your shoulder. It may or may not be painful.

This article looks at causes of collarbone popping, when to see a healthcare provider, how it’s diagnosed and treated, and how you can cope with it.

Verywell / Laura Porter

Knowing some basicshoulder anatomycan help you understand why your collarbone pops. What’s called the “shoulder complex” is made up of three bones and several joints. The bones are:

These bones interact in complicated ways. That allows you to move your arms freely, such as when reaching for things.A problem with any of them may lead to collarbone popping.

The joints of the shoulder complex include:

These four joints attach your shoulder bones to your trunk and allow for arm and shoulder movements.

When you lift your arm, muscles around your shoulder contract and pull the bones in specific directions. This makes the joints glide and slide. Collarbone pops can happen during these motions.

The popping usually occurs at your SC or AC joint. Causes may include:

Separation in your SC joint may cause one collarbone to push forward. You might notice that it sticks out a bit from your breastbone. This can cause abnormal motion that leads to popping and pain when you move your arm.

If you have hypermobile joints or lax ligaments, your collarbone may pop without any particular cause. This is more common in younger people and biological females.

If you have collarbone or shoulder popping when you move your arms, and especially if it’s painful, tell your healthcare provider. They can help figure out why it’s happening.

Swimmer’s Shoulder: Diagnosis and Management

When to See a Healthcare Provider

If you can’t move your shoulder normally, see a healthcare provider right away.

The SC joint can be the site of infection. Both the AC and SC joints can be involved with inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Infection and inflammation can lead to joint instability. This may cause:

If you have any of these symptoms, get urgent medical care.

A physical exam is the first step in finding out why your collarbone pops. It may involve:

Your healthcare provider may also order imaging studies. These include:

Much of the time, this process uncovers the cause of collarbone popping. That provides a direction for treatment.

Treatment for collarbone popping depends on the cause of the problem. For example, if tight muscles or tissues are responsible, treatment may focus on stretching.

Weak shoulder muscles may also cause popping. If this is the case, strengthening those muscles may be the best treatment. Working closely with a physical therapist is a good idea. They can make sure you’re doing the right things for your condition.

Stretches for your shouldermay include:

These stretches gently move your SC, GH, and AC joints, pulling slightly on tight tissues around them. This may restore normal gliding and sliding of your joints and alleviate collarbone popping.

Strengthening exercises for your shoulder may include:

The overall exercise goal for your popping collarbone is to restore normal ROM and strength, and regain normal and proper motion around your shoulder joints.

If trauma is causing your collarbone to pop, you may benefit from immobilization to protect your shoulder joints. Your provider may suggest wearing aslingfor a few weeks. It should be short-term use, though.

Exercises to Rehab Your Shoulder

Surgery

You may need surgery for traumatic dislocations, particularly the SC and GH joints.Surgery is also performed for torn ligaments in the AC or SC joint.

Surgery for non-painful collarbone popping is rare. Usually, it is reserved for traumatic and painful cases of SC or AC joint popping.

Surgery may involve using a small wire to properly connect your SC or AC joints. During surgery, your healthcare provider may “clean out” the joint, removing bone spurs and small bits of cartilage.

After surgery, you’ll likely wear a sling for several weeks while it heals. You may benefit from a course of rehab to regain ROM, strength, and normal arm function.

Keep in mind that some episodes of collarbone popping are short-lived. Others may be permanent. If your collarbone popping causes pain and limited function in your arm, see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis and treatment.

Sometimes, sternoclavicular joint or collarbone popping isn’t painful and doesn’t limit function but is just an annoyance. In these cases, you may have to learn new ways of doing things to avoid the pop. Or you may just get used to it.

As long as you can function fully and painlessly, you should be able to use your arms normally. A little noise coming from the joint doesn’t always signal a problem.

Summary

Treatment depends on the cause. Typical treatments include physical therapy, short-term immobilization, or surgery.

If it hurts, get treatment. If not, you may have nothing to worry about.

Shoulder Blade Pain Symptoms and Causes

11 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Washington University Physicians.The anatomy of the shoulder.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Sternoclavicular (SC) joint disorders.Warth RJ, Lee JT, Millett PJ.Anatomy and biomechanics of the sternoclavicular joint.Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine. 2014;22(3):248-252. doi:10.1053/j.otsm.2013.10.010Martetschläger F, Warth RJ, Millett PJ.Instability and degenerative arthritis of the sternoclavicular joint: a current concepts review.Am J Sports Med. 2014;42(4):999-1007. doi:10.1177/0363546513498990Romeo P, Papalia A, Gambhir N, Styles S, Virk M.Snapping sternoclavicular joint.Cureus. 2023 May;15(5):e38557. doi:10.7759/cureus.38557Malek S, Reinhold EJ, Pearce GS.The Beighton Score as a measure of generalised joint hypermobility.Rheumatol Int. 2021;41(10):1707-1716. doi:10.1007/s00296-021-04832-4Van Tongel A, Karelse A, Berghs B, Van Isacker T, De Wilde L.Diagnostic value of active protraction and retraction for sternoclavicular joint pain.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2014;15(1):421. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-421National Health Service.Clavicle fracture open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) advice and exercises.American Physical Therapy Association.Physical therapy guide to frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).Chen X, Shafer D, Neeki AS, Dong F, Matiko J, Neeki MM.Emergent management of traumatic posterior sternoclavicular joint dislocation: a case report and literature review.Cureus. 2021;13(10):e18996. doi:10.7759/cureus.18996Ma R, Smith PA, Smith MJ, Sherman SL, Flood D, Li X.Managing and recognizing complications after treatment of acromioclavicular joint repair or reconstruction.Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2015;8(1):75-82. doi:10.1007/s12178-014-9255-6

11 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Washington University Physicians.The anatomy of the shoulder.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Sternoclavicular (SC) joint disorders.Warth RJ, Lee JT, Millett PJ.Anatomy and biomechanics of the sternoclavicular joint.Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine. 2014;22(3):248-252. doi:10.1053/j.otsm.2013.10.010Martetschläger F, Warth RJ, Millett PJ.Instability and degenerative arthritis of the sternoclavicular joint: a current concepts review.Am J Sports Med. 2014;42(4):999-1007. doi:10.1177/0363546513498990Romeo P, Papalia A, Gambhir N, Styles S, Virk M.Snapping sternoclavicular joint.Cureus. 2023 May;15(5):e38557. doi:10.7759/cureus.38557Malek S, Reinhold EJ, Pearce GS.The Beighton Score as a measure of generalised joint hypermobility.Rheumatol Int. 2021;41(10):1707-1716. doi:10.1007/s00296-021-04832-4Van Tongel A, Karelse A, Berghs B, Van Isacker T, De Wilde L.Diagnostic value of active protraction and retraction for sternoclavicular joint pain.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2014;15(1):421. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-421National Health Service.Clavicle fracture open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) advice and exercises.American Physical Therapy Association.Physical therapy guide to frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).Chen X, Shafer D, Neeki AS, Dong F, Matiko J, Neeki MM.Emergent management of traumatic posterior sternoclavicular joint dislocation: a case report and literature review.Cureus. 2021;13(10):e18996. doi:10.7759/cureus.18996Ma R, Smith PA, Smith MJ, Sherman SL, Flood D, Li X.Managing and recognizing complications after treatment of acromioclavicular joint repair or reconstruction.Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2015;8(1):75-82. doi:10.1007/s12178-014-9255-6

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Washington University Physicians.The anatomy of the shoulder.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Sternoclavicular (SC) joint disorders.Warth RJ, Lee JT, Millett PJ.Anatomy and biomechanics of the sternoclavicular joint.Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine. 2014;22(3):248-252. doi:10.1053/j.otsm.2013.10.010Martetschläger F, Warth RJ, Millett PJ.Instability and degenerative arthritis of the sternoclavicular joint: a current concepts review.Am J Sports Med. 2014;42(4):999-1007. doi:10.1177/0363546513498990Romeo P, Papalia A, Gambhir N, Styles S, Virk M.Snapping sternoclavicular joint.Cureus. 2023 May;15(5):e38557. doi:10.7759/cureus.38557Malek S, Reinhold EJ, Pearce GS.The Beighton Score as a measure of generalised joint hypermobility.Rheumatol Int. 2021;41(10):1707-1716. doi:10.1007/s00296-021-04832-4Van Tongel A, Karelse A, Berghs B, Van Isacker T, De Wilde L.Diagnostic value of active protraction and retraction for sternoclavicular joint pain.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2014;15(1):421. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-421National Health Service.Clavicle fracture open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) advice and exercises.American Physical Therapy Association.Physical therapy guide to frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).Chen X, Shafer D, Neeki AS, Dong F, Matiko J, Neeki MM.Emergent management of traumatic posterior sternoclavicular joint dislocation: a case report and literature review.Cureus. 2021;13(10):e18996. doi:10.7759/cureus.18996Ma R, Smith PA, Smith MJ, Sherman SL, Flood D, Li X.Managing and recognizing complications after treatment of acromioclavicular joint repair or reconstruction.Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2015;8(1):75-82. doi:10.1007/s12178-014-9255-6

Washington University Physicians.The anatomy of the shoulder.

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Sternoclavicular (SC) joint disorders.

Warth RJ, Lee JT, Millett PJ.Anatomy and biomechanics of the sternoclavicular joint.Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine. 2014;22(3):248-252. doi:10.1053/j.otsm.2013.10.010

Martetschläger F, Warth RJ, Millett PJ.Instability and degenerative arthritis of the sternoclavicular joint: a current concepts review.Am J Sports Med. 2014;42(4):999-1007. doi:10.1177/0363546513498990

Romeo P, Papalia A, Gambhir N, Styles S, Virk M.Snapping sternoclavicular joint.Cureus. 2023 May;15(5):e38557. doi:10.7759/cureus.38557

Malek S, Reinhold EJ, Pearce GS.The Beighton Score as a measure of generalised joint hypermobility.Rheumatol Int. 2021;41(10):1707-1716. doi:10.1007/s00296-021-04832-4

Van Tongel A, Karelse A, Berghs B, Van Isacker T, De Wilde L.Diagnostic value of active protraction and retraction for sternoclavicular joint pain.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2014;15(1):421. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-421

National Health Service.Clavicle fracture open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) advice and exercises.

American Physical Therapy Association.Physical therapy guide to frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).

Chen X, Shafer D, Neeki AS, Dong F, Matiko J, Neeki MM.Emergent management of traumatic posterior sternoclavicular joint dislocation: a case report and literature review.Cureus. 2021;13(10):e18996. doi:10.7759/cureus.18996

Ma R, Smith PA, Smith MJ, Sherman SL, Flood D, Li X.Managing and recognizing complications after treatment of acromioclavicular joint repair or reconstruction.Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2015;8(1):75-82. doi:10.1007/s12178-014-9255-6

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