Tonawanda Chiropractic Care for Cervical Spine Conditions and Related Dysphagia (swallowing trouble)

Many Tonawanda cervical spine-related pain (like neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical spine disease conditions) sufferers may be surprised to learn how it might affect your ability to swallow. Dysphagia is the technical term for difficulty with swallowing. While cervical spine conditions may affect your pharynx and its swallowing function, it is important to recognize just how and why this occurs. Let us, Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation 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 interfere with your ability to sense what is in your mouth, resulting in trouble determining when to swallow which may result in issues like choking or coughing while eating. On the motor side of things, cervical spine pain conditions may also disturb your ability to process food as it moves through your mouth and throat by disrupting normal tongue, jaw, and hyolaryngeal movements (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone that supports 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 associated with increased risk of aspiration (inhaling food particles) due to decreased laryngeal elevation that commonly occurs during swallowing. (1) Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation wants our Tonawanda cervical spine pain patients to be aware of 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 reported that, lucky for these patients, those who have spine-related dysphagia had better outcomes with treatment than those whose dysphagia was related to other issues. (1) In fact, a case report of a female patient who had both dysphagia and cervical osteophytes, cervical kyphosis, and thoracolumar scoliosis was treated for 6 months with chiropractic and reported relief of all issues including dyspagia. (3) In order for individuals with cervical spine disorder-related dysphagia to again experience safe eating habits, proper treatment is essential. Treatment at Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation typically involves a thorough examination to determine the underlying cervical spine issue followed by a treatment plan incorporating 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 as well as tactics to swallow safely when eating. Electrical stimulation has been found beneficial 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) Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation offers research based and clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic spinal manipulation.

CONTACT Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation

There may not be a quick fix for this problem—treatment typically takes some time—with patience and dedication you can get the results you want with individualized care tailored specifically for your needs. Schedule your Tonawanda chiropractic appointment today.