Dysphagia is the medical term for swallowing difficulties. This can happen after a neurological event and may present in a number of different ways.

We have 4 different stages when swallowing, which are:

• Preparatory stage: where we prepare our food, cut it up, bring the food/drink to our mouth

  • Issues which may occur at this stage may be due to physical changes such as limb weakness, making it difficult to cut up food; visual changes such as hemianopia, so you may miss food on one side of the plate; cognitive changes, where you may be easily distracted or become impulsive, which may put you at risk when eating/drinking.​

• Oral stage: where you hold the food/drink in your mouth, chew the food, move the food/drink to the back of the mouth to initiate the swallow​

  • Issues which may occur at this stage may be due to lip weakness where food or drink may spill out from the mouth, difficulty chewing food, difficulty moving food/drink to the back of the mouth or food or drink moving too quickly to the back of the mouth causing you to cough​

• Pharyngeal stage: where the food enters the pharynx (throat) and moves in to the oesophagus (food pipe)

  • Issues which may occur at this stage may be due to a delayed swallow meaning food or drink may travel into the throat before the swallow has been initiated and then enter the airways, which will usually cause you to cough; weak muscles making it difficult to move the food and drink fully into the food pipe causing residue in your throat​

• Oesophageal stage: this is where the food/drink travels down your food pipe and into the stomach. SLTs do not manage this stage of the swallow.

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In order to manage your swallowing difficulties, the speech and language therapist may have to recommend using certain equipment, trialling different textures of food or adding a thickening powder to your drink.