[Dysphagia] diet modification question

[swlslp at yahoo.com (Sandi Lancaster)]

Hi all,

I have a diet modification question that I have
occasionally wondered about...(There are no stupid
questions, right?)  :)    

Is there any reason why a patient who has pharyngeal
dysphagia but who has no known oral dysphagia would
need to be on soft/chopped foods?  I guess what I'm
questioning is this: If a person has a normal
functional oral swallow, then for all intents and
purposes, aren't they modifying a regular consistency
bolus (through the process of the oral stage of the
swallow) so that it's comparable to a soft/chopped
bolus by the time it's ready to be swallowed?  Or is
that not a fair assumption?

I have often seen MBS reports that indicate that a
patient did not have any oral stage difficulties, only
pharyngeal dysphagia, and recommending soft/chopped
foods.  Are we assuming in these instances that a
fully processed regular consistency bolus is not
equivalent to a fully processed soft/chopped bolus?

Any thoughts?

-Sandi


Sandi Lancaster, M.A. CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist


		
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