Dysphagia is a term to describe eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties. The word ‘dysphagia’ is derived from Greek meaning that “dys” is “dysfunctional” and “phagia” meaning “to eat”. Dysphagia can happen to people right across the spectrum from premature babies or neonates right up to people coming to the end of their lives. Dysphagia occurs due to a number of reasons. It often occurs due to being born prematurely or with a learning disability, due to having a stroke or brain injury or due to a health condition, such as Dementia or Parkinson’s Disease.
Signs of dysphagia can include:
- Difficulty chewing food
- Drooling
- Food or drink being left over in the mouth after swallowing
- Difficulty swallowing or food/drink/tablets sticking in the mouth or throat
- Sounding wet or “gurgly” when eating and drinking
- Coughing
- Choking
- Recurrent chest infections
- Weight loss
- Avoiding meals
I know you might be thinking, but how can a speech and language therapist help with that? Lots of people aren’t aware that speech and language therapists provide a critical role in the assessment, diagnosis, management and treatment of eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties. It may seem a bit random, but as I learned as a student, speech therapists became involved with swallowing because speech and swallowing use the same muscles!
Here are some treatment/management strategies that a speech and language therapist can advise you on:
- Swallowing exercises to strengthen your swallowing muscles
- Head and neck positions to improve swallowing
- Body positioning and posture
- Food textures to have and to avoid
- Fluid consistencies to have and to avoid
- Special equipment e.g. specialist drinking cups, straws, cutlery
- Oral hygiene
- Strategies to improve swallowing safety
- Environmental strategies
- Feeding techniques
- Whether you need objective assessment, such as a videofluoroscopy or FEES
- Decide if a feeding tube is right for you
We all know just how important food and drink is to not only our health, but to our well being and enjoyment of life. Having trouble swallowing can be a very distressing and lonely problem, so please don’t suffer in silence. If you or a loved one are having trouble with swallowing, then make sure you contact your GP in the first instance. If you need advice/help/support with your swallowing difficulties then contact us here.
This factsheet from giving voice is another brilliant resource to better understanding dysphagia: https://www.rcslt.org/wp-content/uploads/media/Project/RCSLT/rcslt-dysphagia-factsheet.pdf.
