If you are hurt while eating or even drinking water, if you have difficulty swallowing, the cause may be dysphagia. The difficulty of swallowing, which can be seen at any age, reduces the quality of life and makes eating a torture.
What is Dysphagia?
Dysphagia, or difficulty in swallowing, is a situation where food and drinks taken require more time and effort than usual when descending from mouth to stomach. In some cases, even swallowing difficulty is accompanied by pain. In advanced stages, it may be impossible to swallow food and beverages. When the difficulty in swallowing becomes permanent, if the foods are eaten very quickly or are not chewed enough, they should be treated medically. The difficulty of swallowing seen at any age is mostly seen in the elderly.
What are The causes of Dysphagia?
- Organs involved in swallowing activities; difficulty in swallowing may occur with impaired function due to infection, tumoral, metabolic, neurological, congenital and other reasons. Apart from this, it can be listed as follows.
- If the tonsils are swollen and the esophagus is very narrow, there is trouble swallowing. Weakness in the muscles of the esophagus also causes difficulty swallowing. Barret esophageal discomfort is manifested by difficulty swallowing and feeling stuck. Inflammation in the esophagus may be the cause of dysphagia. It may be difficult to swallow due to some muscle diseases (such as Guillain Barre syndrome).
- Due to some allergic causes, difficulty in swallowing and a feeling of stuck in the throat may occur. Due to some stomach diseases, difficulty in swallowing and a feeling of stuck in the throat.
- The most critical reason is the tumors seen in the transition region of the swallowing action. The tumor, which manifests itself in solid foods, makes it difficult to consume liquid foods as it progresses.
What Are The Symptoms of Dysphagia?
These include symptoms such as pain during swallowing, increased salivation in the mouth, feeling of food stuck in the throat, heartburn in the stomach, discomfort in the throat and chest, food coming back, generations and stomach acid accumulating in the throat, and sudden weight loss.
Symptoms of dysphagia in infants and children can be summarized as follows; lack of attention during breastfeeding and eating, refusal to eat, moodiness when eating or sucking, being choking while eating, coughing, vomiting, weight gain and slowing growth.
How is Dysphagia Diagnosed?
A person who observes that he or his child has difficulty swallowing should definitely consult a gastroentrology or ENT specialist. The causes of swallowing difficulties are tried to be determined by methods such as blood tests, endoscopic gastroscopy examination, barium x-ray, clinical examination, and the patient’s history for the diagnosis of swallowing difficulty or throat stenosis. If the doctor suspects a tumor or cancer, oncological evaluations are required.
How is Dysphagia Treatment?
Treatment method in dysphagia varies according to the diagnosis of the disease. It is not possible to treat this if it is difficult to swallow due to a brain-related cause. Because it is difficult for paralyzed muscles to become active again. In these patients, the stomach is mouthed with the abdominal wall and the patient is fed through this door.
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If the cause is infection, antibiotics, mouth and throat antiseptic mouthwashes and sprays can be used. In the treatment of swallowing difficulty due to tonsil swelling, treatments such as the inflammatory condition that causes swelling of the tonsils or surgical removal of tonsils are applied. If it occurs due to muscle diseases, swallowing difficulties can be prevented by physical therapy.
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In this article, we have given you information about Dysphagia disease. You can write us what you want to ask about this topic in the comments section.
