Many people have difficulties swallowing medicine when it is offered to them as tablets or pills. Dysphagia or swallowing difficulties can impact people of all ages including youngsters although it is most usual in older people as they tend to be more susceptible to the causative diseases and age related changes in the functions of the saliva glands. Dysphagia is a particularly severe issue in care homes for the elderly where up to 1/3 of residents may well suffer from it which makes caring for them a more complicated and time consuming process.
Dysphagia consequences can be very serious as it can certainly interfere with medicine management and medication management proscribed by doctors when the affected person is unwilling or unable to take medication in capsule form. Furthermore there is a danger that pills ingested orally may cause choking or a blockage of the airway and there is also a danger that pills can become stuck in the throat which may lead to the incorrect dispersal of the medication to the body and also possible damage to the oesophagus.
Up till now the most widespread method of dealing with the issues that Dysphagia presents has been tablet crushing in order to make medicine easier to swallow. However there are lots of issues associated with crushing tablets that could have serious implications and may affect the efficacy of the medicine. A lot of tablets have a sugar coating on them to make them taste more pleasant and even though crushing them will not have any kind of impact on the efficiency of the pill it may make them taste very unpleasant. Pills that have an enteric coating should never be crushed before they are taken as the coating is designed to keep the tablet together within the stomach to either; protect the stomach from the medicine, protect the medicine from the stomach or to release the medicine soon after it’s left the stomach.
Fortunately help is on hand for individuals with Dysphagia and the people that take care of them. There is now a bigger range than ever before of liquid medicines that can be used orally and have the exact same effect as pills or tablets. Oral liquid medicine is made to deal with a wide range of illnesses and diseases such as those affecting the cardio-vascular system and endocrine system and more liquid medicines are being created all the time. Liquid medicines are effortless to swallow for those with Dysphagia and are available in a variety of enjoyable flavours.