| Product Model | Brand | View Best Price |
| #1: SafeStraw Drinking Aid by Bionix | Bionix Medical Technologies | View Price SafeStraw Drinking Aid by Bionix |
| #2: SimplyThick Food Thickener | Simply Thick | View Price SimplyThick Food Thickener |
| #3: Provale Regulating Drinking Cup | Fabrication Enterprises | View Price Provale Regulating Drinking Cup |
| #4: Thick-It Instant Food Thickener Powder | Cardinal Health at Home | View Price Thick-It Instant Food Thickener Powder |
| #4: Thick-It Instant Food Thickener Powder | Cardinal Health at Home | View Price Thick-It Instant Food Thickener Powder |
Dysphagia is a disorder categorized by difficulties in the first or second stage of the swallowing process. Swallowing may seem like a simple process, but it’s actually fairly complicated as those struggling with swallowing-related difficulties can surely tell you. The entire process requires perfect coordination between the brain, several major nerves, two muscular valves, and the esophagus to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
For people living with dysphagia, one or more of these areas is not working in concert with the others, and that leads to hiccoughs in the process. These patients often experience a range of negative consequences of these difficulties including frequent choking, hesitancy in swallowing, pain when swallowing, and recurring pneumonia.
Treatment of dysphagia varies based on the underlying causes of the swallowing problems, but once you’ve received your diagnosis from a speech-language pathologist or ENT there are a variety of products that can help you or your therapists better manage your swallowing.
Most commonly, speech-language pathologists focus on muscle strength, posture, and rhythm of swallowing when helping patients with dysphagia. This is typically conducted through a range of exercises and therapeutic modalities that can be of great benefit while the patient is with the therapist. But therapists can’t be with us all the time, and we often need solutions to help our loved ones eat and drink while we’re at home or on the go.
Luckily, there is a wide range of solutions to help users more safely and easily eat, drink, and swallow both while they’re with their therapist and while they’re alone.
Drinking aids are typically designed to limit the amount of liquid that a person brings into their mouth. This makes the bolus, or ball of food/beverage as it mixes with saliva in the mouth, easier to control as it moves through the mouth and throat. These aids can often be easily disguised as straws, helping to make their assistance more discrete for users who may be worried about eating or drinking in public.
Additionally, some cups include unique tops that limit liquid intake as well, which may provide a great solution for users who can’t or don’t like to use straws.
Thickeners are another easy solution for swallowing assistance, as making liquids thicker slows their progress in the mouth and is another way to make the bolus easier to control. These products are available in a range of different formulas, usually made with cornstarch or maltodextrin, coming in both pre-measured and loose quantities depending on your needs and how thick you need to make your food or drink.
Depending on the severity of your or your loved one’s dysphagia, your therapist might instruct you to mix food or drinks to one of several consistencies including nectar, honey, or pudding. Often they will show you how to determine this consistency and help guide you through the process of mixing it yourself.
These cups are specifically designed to combat the problems that patients with dysphagia encounter. One of the most common swallowing postures taught to people with dysphagia is to sit up straight and tuck the chin down, this helps facilitate the proper muscle movements of an effective swallow. Unfortunately, traditional cups make it difficult to drink while maintaining this posture. Dysphagia cups feature a deep curve on one edge that helps decrease the amount of liquid a person can sip and provides nose clearance to reduce the user’s need to tilt the head back.
