Thoracic spinal dysfunction

Your mid-back or thoracic spine is made up of twelve vertebrae. With each vertebra forming two joints on either side with the vertebra immediately above and two with the vertebra immediately below, your mid-back has twenty six spinal joints. Thoracic spinal dysfunction, often referred to as a joint being "out of place", where one or more of your vertebral joint's movement is poorly coordinated with its surrounding tissue structures, can lead to spinal pain. 

Spinal pain can be experienced as burning, tearing, ripping, stabbing, sharp shooting, aching, soreness, tenderness or gnawing in character. The intensity of the pain does not always indicate the seriousness of the problem. Mild pain can be from a serious cause and severe pain can be from a relatively minor problem involving the soft tissue surrounding the rib and it joints.  

Pain is often associated with breathing in, at rest, with trunk movement, or in less severe cases breathing and trunk movement may be restricted by stiffness. 

Your thoracic spine is surrounded thirteen muscle groups that predominately determine where your joints are positioned and how they move. In fact, the greatest forces acting on your back are voluntary muscular contraction, that is, you have control of the most influential factor determining the health of your back. 

A ribs forms two small joints with your mid-back, or thoracic, vertebra. The ribs are attached to the spine by several muscle, tendon and ligament attachments. And there are three layers of muscle between each rib that move them when breathing in and out. Overworking these tissues are almost always are involved with rib dysfunction.