Aspiration the Boogieman of Dysphagia: What You Should Know

From time to time, a patient comes to me for treatment of their dysphagia (swallowing problem), but they have undergone a video-swallow study elsewhere. The disadvantage to me in those circumstances, is that I do not have access to the actual video to review. A...

Aspirating When drinking? Don’t be a Bird Brain

Most birds drink some water every day, but they don’t drink the way we humans do. Their anatomy is obviously quite different from ours, and that includes not having cheeks and lips. With a few exceptions, birds lack the ability to suction liquid into their throats,...

The mouth-gut relationship and the development of disease

At a recent Journal club, hosted by a local Neurologist, we were joined by a dentist who reviewed some research findings suggesting that Periodontal disease was modestly associated with incident MCI (mild cognitive impairment) and dementia in a community-based cohort...

Help Me Use the Breather®: Frequently asked questions

From time to time I am contacted by a customer, patient, or speech-language pathologist with questions about using the Breather®, respiratory muscle trainer (RMT) device. Recently, I heard from a customer who I’ll call Linda, who shared in an email that she has...