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

Many Manahawkin cervical spine-related pain (like neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical spine disease conditions) sufferers are curious how it might affect your ability to swallow. Dysphagia is the technical term for difficulty with swallowing. While cervical spine conditions may have an impact on your pharynx and its swallowing function, it is valuable to know just how and why this occurs. Let us, Manahawkin Chiropractic Center 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 coming from the neck can hamper your ability to sense what is in your mouth, resulting in trouble knowing when to swallow which can lead to issues such as choking or coughing while eating. On the motor side of things, cervical spine pain conditions may also disturb your ability to move food as it moves through your mouth and throat by disturbing normal tongue, jaw, and hyolaryngeal movements (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 associated with heightened risk of aspiration (inhaling food particles) due to reduced laryngeal elevation that normally occurs during swallowing. (1) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center wants our Manahawkin cervical spine pain patients to know about such issues.

The Importance of Proper Treatment

The ability to swallow affects one’s quality of life. A variety of diseases and spinal conditions may be the source of the swallowing trouble. Researchers are fine-tuning their evaluation of patients with swallowing issues. (2) A recent study reported that, fortunately for these patients, those who have spine-associated dysphagia had better outcomes with treatment than those whose dysphagia was linked to other issues. (1) As a matter of 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 return to safe eating habits, proper treatment is essential. Treatment at Manahawkin Chiropractic Center 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 meant to improve 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) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center offers research based and clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic spinal manipulation.

CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center

There may not be a quick fix for this problem—treatment typically takes several weeks—with patience and commitment you can get the results you want with personalized care tailored specifically for your needs. Schedule your Manahawkin chiropractic appointment soon.