Many Toronto 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 your pharynx
and its swallowing function, it is valuable to understand
just how and why that would occur. Let’s,
Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre and you, 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 involves both sensory and motor components.
When it comes to the sensory part, pain stemming
from the neck can impede
your ability to sense what’s in your mouth,
resulting in trouble determining when to swallow
which can result in issues such as choking
or coughing while eating. On the motor side of things, cervical
spine pain conditions might also disturb your
ability to move food as it goes through your mouth
and throat by disrupting normal tongue, jaw, and
hyolaryngeal motions (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone
that supports the tongue). Therefore, there may
be trouble clearing food debris from your mouth after each
bite or sip. Furthermore, cervical spine disorder has been linked to increased risk of aspiration (inhaling food
particles) due to decreased laryngeal elevation that commonly
occurs during swallowing. (1) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre wants our Toronto
cervical spine pain patients to be aware of such issues.
The Importance of Proper Treatment
The ability to swallow affects your
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 reported
that, lucky for these patients, those who have spine-associated
dysphagia had better outcomes with treatment than patients whose
dysphagia was related to other issues. (1) In
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 again experience safe
eating habits, proper treatment is essential. Treatment at Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
typically starts with 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 designed to increase strength and range of
motion in the neck muscles plus tactics for swallowing safety during meals. Electrical
stimulation has been reported beneficial in targeting
specific areas of weakness related to impaired tongue
motion or jaw closure while also promoting increased blood flow throughout the
neck region. (4,5) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre deliveres research based and
clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic
spinal manipulation.
CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
There may not be a quick fix for
this problem—treatment typically takes some time—and with
patience and dedication you can get the results you want with
personalized care tailored specifically for your needs. Schedule
your Toronto chiropractic appointment today.