Many Plainville people suffering from neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical
spine disease conditions are curious
how it might impact your swallowing ability.
Dysphagia is the technical term for difficulty with swallowing.
While cervical spine conditions may affect pharyngeal swallowing function, it is valuable to know
just how and why that would occur. Let’s,
Layden Chiropractic and our Plainville chiropractic client, look
more closely at the connection between cervical spine
disorders and swallowing function.
The Link Between Cervical Spine Pain and Swallowing Function
The relationship between cervical spine pain conditions and
swallowing function entails both sensory and motor components.
When it comes to the sensory part, pain originating in the neck has the potential to affect
your ability to sense what is in your mouth,
resulting in difficulty determining when to swallow
which may lead to issues like choking
or coughing while eating. On the motor side of things, cervical
spine pain conditions might also disturb your
ability to process food as it goes through your mouth
and throat by disturbing usual tongue, jaw, and
hyolaryngeal motions (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone
that holds the tongue). As a result, there may
be trouble clearing food debris from your mouth after each
bite or sip. Furthermore, cervical spine disorder has been linked to heightened risk of aspiration (inhaling food
particles) due to decreased laryngeal elevation that commonly
occurs during swallowing. (1) Layden Chiropractic wants our Plainville
cervical spine pain patients to know about such issues.
The Importance of Proper Treatment
The ability to swallow impacts one’s
quality of life. A variety of diseases and spinal conditions may be the root cause
of the swallowing trouble. Researchers are fine-tuning their evaluation of
patients with swallowing issues. (2) A recent study documented
that, fortunately for these patients, those who have spine-associated
dysphagia had better outcomes with treatment than patients whose
dysphagia was related to other issues. (1) As a matter of
fact, a case report of a female patient with
swallowing issues who also had cervical osteophytes, cervical kyphosis, and thoracolumar
scoliosis was treated for 6 months with chiropractic reported relief of all
issues including dysphagia. (3) In order for individuals with cervical
spine disorder-related dysphagia to return to safe
eating habits, proper treatment is important. Treatment at Layden Chiropractic
typically involves a thorough examination to determine the underlying
cervical spine issue followed by a treatment plan including
gentle spinal manipulation care (often in the form of Cox® Technic) and
exercises meant to improve strength and range of
motion in the neck muscles as well as tactics for swallowing safety during meals. Electrical
stimulation has been reported helpful in targeting
specific areas of weakness associated with impaired tongue
motion or jaw closure while also promoting increased blood flow throughout the
neck region. (4,5) Layden Chiropractic deliveres research based and
clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic
spinal manipulation.
CONTACT Layden Chiropractic
While there isn't necessarily a quick fix for
this problem—treatment typically takes some time—and with
patience and commitment you can get the results you want with
personalized care tailored specifically for your needs. Make
your Plainville chiropractic appointment today.