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

Many Murfreesboro people suffering from neck pain, stiffness, or other degenerative cervical spine disease conditions are curious how it might affect your ability to swallow. Dysphagia is the technical term for swallowing problems. While cervical spine conditions may affect your pharynx and its swallowing function, it is important to understand just how and why that would occur. Let’s, Most Chiropractic Clinic and our Murfreesboro chiropractic client, 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 component, pain originating in the neck has the potential to impede your ability to identify what’s in your mouth, resulting in trouble determining when to swallow which may lead to issues like choking or coughing during meals. On the motor side of things, cervical spine pain conditions might also interfere with your ability to move food as it moves through your mouth and throat by disrupting usual tongue, jaw, and hyolaryngeal motions (the movement of the hyoid bone, the bone that supports the tongue). Therefore, there may be trouble clearing food debris from your mouth after each bite or sip. Furthermore, cervical spine disorder has been linked to increased risk of aspiration (inhaling food particles) due to reduced laryngeal elevation that commonly occurs during swallowing. (1) Most Chiropractic Clinic wants our Murfreesboro 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 root cause 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 patients 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 important. Treatment at Most Chiropractic Clinic typically involves 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) Most Chiropractic Clinic offers research based and clinically experienced relieving treatment modalities along with chiropractic spinal manipulation.

CONTACT Most Chiropractic Clinic

While there isn't necessarily a quick fix for this problem—treatment typically takes some time—with patience and dedication you can get the results you want with personalized care tailored specifically for your needs. Make your Murfreesboro chiropractic appointment today.