Dysphagia – Treatment

Transcript

So how do we treat dysphasia? Well, it really depends on the cause. Dysphagia treatment may include learning exercises to help coordinate your swallowing muscles, or we stimulate the nerves that trigger the swallowing reflex, as well as learning swallowing techniques to help make it easier. Other treatment approaches to dysphasia may include esophageal dilation, where we stretch the esophagus gently to expand the width of the esophagus, using special balloons or instruments that we pass through the mouth into the esophagus to make that extra stretch. If people have vocal cord paralysis, we can correct that, with procedures done in the office or in the operating room with surgery. And finally, reflux should be treated too. And we treat reflux often with diet and less likely with medication. Medicines in some instances can be helpful, and surgeries can be helpful depending on the cause. And certainly swallowing therapy with a speech language pathologist can be very instrumental at helping. You may find it very helpful to change your diet or hold your head or neck in a certain position while you swallow. In very serious cases, people may need feeding tubes. Also some people who have feeding tubes can be rehabilitated well enough. And in some cases, those tubes can be removed. Working with a swallowing team can help accomplish this goal in some cases. The primary goal is to identify the cause and the best approach if you’re having a swallowing problem is to see a swallowing specialist or a laryngologist.