Reverse Shoulder Replacement the plastic acting as rotator cuff

By shorter, do you mean both shoulders are not level when you look in a mirror? My shoulders are level, the only difference is that there is a flat depression from just under the collar bone to the top of the shoulder where the front rotator cuff muscles were removed for the reverse TSR. But unless you are looking for it, it is not obvious now that the thin scar has healed. I wear sleeveless tank tops or spaghetti straps in the summer and no one notices that one side is a bit less filled out.

I have something a little different,my replacement shoulder slopes downward. I was told when the muscle is built back up,this will correct. Unfortunately,it’s been 15 months since my surgery and my deltoids have not come back. It’s is not as pronounced as it was,but unless I wear something right up to my neck,my tops slip down on that side.

Hi Helen - I did tailoring for a long time as a side thing. Many people with their "native shoulders" (my ortho told me that really is a term!) have uneven shoulders - sometimes by a lot.

My solution was to make custom shoulder pads to make up 2/3 to 3/4 of the difference. For women, I would include a loop & snap to attach to the bra strap. For men, a bit of non-slip fabric on the underside. If made of a skin-toned fabric & feathered out at the edges, these are invisible under all but the sheerest of tops (or sleeveless, of course.) Another option is to remove the sleeve, lower the shoulder cap, taper the sleeve and reattach - a lot more work.

If you look in a sewing supply site like this you can find many options:
https://www.wawak.com/garment-construction/shoulder-various-pads/
Have you talked to a Rehab Physical Therapist (one who evaluates and designs custom programs for patients, not a "big box" PT company) about designing exercises to help build up the deltoids and other muscles?

Using a vertical line from the center of your body, the left side (surgical side) is 1 ½" shorter than the right from an identical position on each shoulder to center.

Thanks for all your suggestions,I appreciate your input. Yes, the last pt place I went to,worked with me for an hour ,twice a week for 2 months,but I made no progress. I even had a nerve test done to make sure there was no nerve damage.

I had rtrs done in 2017, I'm very happy, I will always have restrictions and I still to this day do PT and excercises to slowly help strenghten it, My right shoulder is also shorter, it does not go out as far horizontily where the other one is rounded on the outside, I think it is because somethings were gone now, I am a little self-conscious and tank tops slide down and somethings do not look/fit right, but I am very happy, very little pain, I had a rotator cuff repair done on the same shoulder 10+ year before and I wore it out again. The goal was to get rid of pain and to be able to use the arm again, I have a friend who had the same done and he was very sub-concious about it

The dr has restructured the shoulder and I also notice the hardware showing. I am of a petite stature still going thru therapy and still have a lot of pain after trying all sorts of procedures. Now they are checking my neck which is involved. Are you petite like me by any chance?

Not really petite per se, but I am 75 years old, up until a couple of years ago, I was very active. I still am, but not the same way. I'm thinking I just have to give it more time and try to keep working it out. But, I still question the size of the disk the replaced the cuff. I'm not against the disk, just want to know why it could not have been larger to help compensate.

Have you commented to your doctor about the shorter appearance? It would be interesting to talk to someone like a surgeon or a certified PT specialist, those who see a lot of rTSR patients to see how common this is. I think some appearance may depend on the natural structure of your shoulders and muscles before surgery, (my shoulders are naturally very downward sloping, my husband's are straight across) Because our body shapes are all different, the surgeon has a slightly different problem with each case. I was sent for a special MRI months before surgery that was specifically for calibrating the dimensions for my prosthesis which I understood was custom made. I am assuming that they tried to create good internal bone fit as well as a natural looking ball joint. Maybe it looks more natural with very sloping shoulders, I don't know. But I am very happy with my results, and my shoulders look very even. I would try to talk with an expert who has seen a lot of these specific surgeries and see what they say.

Yes, that is a good idea. My appointment with my surgeon is not until May of next year. Perhaps by then with a lot of workout, I can get something more to 'normal'. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but I was really curious. I have not heard anyone else bring this subject up, and that made me think it was just me. But seeing others also curious I was hoping to get even an affirmative to my original conjecture. The fact that the disk is so much smaller than the cuff was. Didn't think as you mentioned about the MRI and using that to make adjustments and the making of the implant as well. And, yes, that was done on me as well.
Thank you for your response.