What is Dysphagia?
Dysphagia is defined as “difficulty swallowing.”
The swallow mechanism’s purpose is to close off the trachea (wind pipe) and direct food and liquids to the esophagus (swallowing pipe). When swallow muscles are not functioning properly, a person is at risk for medical problems including aspiration pneumonia, a type of pneumonia caused when solids and/or liquids enter the lungs (aspiration) and forms an infection.
If a person appears to be at risk for aspirating solids and/or liquids into the lungs, they will likely be referred to a dysphagia specialist known as a Speech Language Pathologist (or SLP) for a swallow evaluation. There are two main types of swallow evaluations:
- A Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES)
- A modified barium swallow study (MBSS)
These two tests can both identify whether the patient is aspirating food and/or liquids. These procedures also aim to try out various solid/liquid consistencies and swallowing techniques to see if swallowing can be made easier and safer for the patient.
