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May 23
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Tablet Crushing Can Cause Many ProblemsHealth Comments Off
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More and more people have difficulties swallowing medication when it’s offered to them as tablets or pills. Dysphagia or swallowing difficulties can affect people spanning various ages including children although it is most usual in older people as they tend to be more prone to the causative illnesses as well as age related changes in the functions of the saliva glands. Dysphagia is a particularly severe issue in care homes for the elderly where approximately 1/3 of residents may suffer from it which makes caring for them a far more complicated and time consuming process.
Dysphagia consequences can be quite serious as it can certainly interfere with treatments proscribed by medical professionals if the affected person is unwilling or unable to take medicine in pill form. Furthermore there is a risk that capsules ingested orally could cause choking or a blockage of the airway and there is also a risk that capsules could become lodged in the throat which may result in the incorrect dispersal of the medication to the body as well as possible injury to the oesophagus.
Up till now the most typical method of coping with the problems that Dysphagia presents has been tablet crushing to make treatments less difficult to swallow. However there are a lot of problems associated with crushing tablets that can have significant implications and may have an effect on the efficacy of the medicine. A lot of pills have a sugar coating on them to make them taste more enjoyable and although crushing them won’t have any kind of effect on the efficiacy of the tablet it could make them taste really unpleasant. Pills that have an enteric coating should never be crushed before they’re taken because the coating is made to keep the pill together within the stomach to either; protect the stomach from the medication, protect the medicine from the stomach or to release the medicine soon after it’s left the stomach.
Fortunately help is on hand for people with Dysphagia and also the people who take care of them. There is today a larger range than ever before of liquid medicines which can be taken orally and have precisely the same effect as pills or capsules. Oral liquid medicine is created to deal with an array of ailments 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 easy to swallow for those with Dysphagia and come in a variety of enjoyable flavours.