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Shoulder replacement set out by someone who had one: how total, reverse, and partial differ, what the rotator cuff decides, the rehab that makes the result, and how long the joint holds.
Shoulder replacement, from the worn joint to the settled result.

I'm 62 and about to have a new shoulder, terrified I'll outlive it and be back for the whole thing again. How long do these actually last?

Total or reverse · started Nov 14, 2025 · 5 replies · 260 views

November 14, 2025, 9:42 am#1

Right, hoping some of you further down the road can settle my head a bit. I'm 62, still working part time, still hauling the caravan about most summers, and the surgeon has said the right shoulder needs replacing (arthritis, cuff apparently still ok so it's a total not a reverse, if I've understood that right).

Here's the bit keeping me up. Everyone I mention it to says "oh a new hip lasts 20 years these days" like it's a fact, but nobody actually knows about shoulders. And I keep reading that if you're YOUNGER when you have it done it wears out faster, which if true means I've picked the worst possible age? So do I just wait? The pain is bad but it's not unbearable yet.

What I really want to know is a straight number. If I have this at 62, roughly how old am I when I'm likely sat in front of a surgeon being told it needs doing again. Because going through this ONCE sounds bad enough.

December 2, 2025, 4:18 pm#2

I'll say the thing everyone said to me first: stop treating it like a car warranty with a fixed mileage. It doesn't tick down to zero on a set date. Mine (a reverse, so different to yours) is coming up three years and it's the best thing I ever did.

On the "wait because you're young" thing, I'd be careful. My own surgeon put it the other way round, the joint doesn't know your age, it wears with how much you load it and how the arthritis behaves, not with the calendar. Sitting in pain for five extra years to save the implant some mileage seemed daft to me when I asked it plainly. But I'm not you and I'm not your cuff.

The bit that actually reassured me was reading the site's own piece on how long a shoulder replacement lasts, because it gives ranges and where the numbers come from instead of one magic figure.

December 19, 2025, 11:05 am#3

Following this because I'm 59 and in exactly the same "am I too young" spiral. My brother in law keeps telling me they only last ten years and then you're stuffed because you can't have it redone. Is that even true? The "can't be redone" part is the thing that scares me more than the ten years honestly.

January 11, 2026, 10:27 am#4

Let me give you the honest headline first, then the conditions on it, because a single number is exactly the wrong way to hold this.

For an anatomic total shoulder replacement in a joint with a working rotator cuff, which is what has been described here, the large joint registries and long term series broadly put survivorship in the region of 90 to 95 percent still in place at 10 years, with a good proportion running to 15 or even 20 years. Reverse replacements (a different operation for a different problem) have strong early and mid term results and many good 10 year figures, but the very long term data simply does not stretch as far yet, because the modern designs are younger than the anatomic ones. So "does a reverse last as long as a total" is genuinely "we have less runway of evidence", not "no".

What actually wears or fails matters more than the birthday. In an anatomic total it is usually the glenoid side: the polyethylene socket component can loosen or the plastic wears over many years, and that is the commonest reason one comes to revision. In a reverse it tends to be baseplate loosening, instability, or bone changes around the components. The metal ball and the stem are rarely the weak link. The piece on implants and the materials they are made from walks through why the socket side is the part under most scrutiny.

To the fear about being "too young": age is not the driver, load is. A physically heavy life, repeated impact, or regularly lifting substantial weight overhead puts more cumulative demand on the socket fixation, and that, not the number 62, is what can shorten survival. This is why a surgeon may talk differently to a labourer than to someone with a desk job. It is also why deliberately sitting in significant pain for years "to save the implant" is rarely the trade it sounds like, because quality of life now is part of the sum.

On the "you cannot have it redone" belief: that is not correct. A shoulder replacement can be revised. It is honestly a bigger operation than the first, the recovery is longer, and if there is bone loss around the old components it becomes more complex, sometimes converting an old total into a reverse. So it is fair to say revision is harder, not fair to say it is impossible. Knowing that alone stops the word "revision" being a cliff edge in your mind.

The exceptions I would flag: inflammatory arthritis, previous infection, significant osteoporosis, or a shoulder that has already had surgery all change these odds, sometimes considerably. None of the figures above are a prediction for your particular joint. The only person who can weigh your cuff, your bone quality, your imaging and how you actually use the arm is the surgeon who will do the operation, so put the durability question to them directly and ask what THEY see on your scans.

March 8, 2026, 2:33 pm#5

quote: {author: robert-kessler, text: "age is not the driver, load is"}

This is the bit I wish I'd understood before mine. I garden properly, digging, hauling bags of compost, and I'd assumed a new shoulder meant babying it forever or it'd fail early. When I asked, the answer wasn't "never lift anything", it was more about sensible limits and not doing repeated heavy overhead stuff. Two years on and it's fine. So "active life = it wears out fast" was too blunt in my head. It's specific kinds of loading, not just being busy.

June 27, 2026, 8:56 am#6

Update for anyone finding this later with the same wobble. Had the total done in April. Six weeks was miserable and I nearly regretted the lot, then it turned a corner and I'm now back doing most things, caravan included next month all being well.

The durability worry that started this thread has more or less gone quiet, mostly because I actually asked my surgeon the straight question at the pre op instead of stewing on forums (no offence to this one). His answer matched what was said here, a good chance of 15 plus years for my type, no promises, and it can be revised if it ever comes to that. Being 62 turned out not to be the problem I'd built it up to be. Thanks all.

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