Sunday, August 10, 2014

Understanding Swallowing Disorders In Detail

By Tanisha Berg


Dysphagia is a term used to refer to feeling difficulty in passing food or even liquid from our mouth through to the mouth to stomach. Swallowing disorders are common to every age group but especially the elderly. These problems are caused by mainly temporal factors that are not threatening. They rarely represent serious diseases for example tumor. One should let these disorders to clear by themselves failure to which he or she should see a doctor.

One swallows a lot of times in a day including normal saliva and the mucus produced by the body. The first stage in swallowing is oral preparation stage where one chews. The second is oral stage where our tongue pushes food or liquid to the back of the back of our mouth. The third is pharyngeal stage where food and liquids passes through the pharynx. The final one is esophageal stage where the food or liquid passes through esophagus into our stomachs.

We only have voluntary control in the two initial stages. The other two do happen without much of our input. Some symptoms causing these disorders include; the feeling that foodstuff are sticking in our throats, discomfort in our throats, chocking as a result of foods and liquids failing to pass easily and therefore sucked into lungs, change of our voice and also drooling.

In case these problems persist, they are serious and not temporal and needs examination by a doctor. This is usually done with the help of mirrors. At times the doctor can insert a small tube into the nose. The patient then will eat food with the scope in the throat. This will take visual images that will help in examination.

You can use medicine to treat these disorders. You use drugs that will slow your stomach from producing too much acid. Antacids too and relaxants can help you. The treatment you take is tailored according to the kind of a problem that you have. One can treat gastro esophagus reflux by changing your eating habits such as; not taking too much alcohol and tobacco, reducing your weight and stress and consuming a well balanced diet. If such a problem persists, one can use antacids between the meals.

Swallowing problems can be treated by medication, surgery or swallowing therapy. The therapy includes special exercises of stimulating nerves which cause the swallow reflex. Also a person can be shown how to place food in the throat or the position of the body of a person and the head when eating.

Surgery can be used to treat certain problems. The throat may need to be stretched. For a tight muscle, it might need to be released surgically or dilated. Many diseases can contribute to swallowing problems. In case the problem persists, he or she is advised to see a neck surgeon.

Finally, there can be problems if there is any interruption at the process of swallowing. Eating slowly as well as thorough chewing can help in reducing this problem. However the problem may range from a number of causes, even poor teeth. The most common case is when stomach acid does move up to pharynx through esophagus causing a discomfort.




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