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Many people have difficulties swallowing medication when it is offered to them as tablets or capsules. Dysphagia or swallowing difficulties can impact people of all ages including children although it is most frequent in older people since they tend to be more vulnerable to the causative diseases and age associated changes in the functions of the saliva glands. Dysphagia is a particularly acute difficulty in care homes for the elderly where up to 1/3 of residents may suffer from it which makes caring for them a far more difficult and time consuming process.

Dysphagia consequences can be quite severe as it can obviously interfere with treatments proscribed by doctors when the affected person is unwilling or not able to take treatments in capsule form. Furthermore there’s a threat that pills ingested orally might cause choking or a blockage of the airway and there is also a danger that pills may become lodged in the throat which may result in the incorrect dispersal of the medication to the body and also possible injury to the oesophagus.

Up till now the most typical method of dealing with the issues that Dysphagia presents has been tablet crushing in order to make treatments easier to swallow. However there are lots of issues associated with crushing tablets that may have severe implications and can have an effect on the effectiveness of the medicine. Some tablets are sugar covered to make them taste better and while crushing them might not alter the way the pill works it will make them taste very unpleasant. Tablets that have an enteric coating should really never be crushed before they are used because the coating is designed to keep the pill together in 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 there is an alternative solution for those who suffer from Dysphagia and also the people that care for them. There is now a larger range than ever before of liquid medicines that may be taken orally and have exactly the same effect as pills or capsules. Oral liquid medicine is created to treat an array 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 painless to swallow for those with Dysphagia and are available in a variety of enjoyable flavours.

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