Swallowing Disorders

The physicians at C/V ENT Surgical Group, Dr. Alen Cohen and Dr. Jerome Vener, serving the greater Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks areas, will also work closely with you to determine the cause of your particular swallowing dysfunction whether it may be difficulty with solids or liquids, choking with liquids, regurgitation of food, pain with swallowing, or other complaints associated with swallowing. The swallowing mechanism is rather complicated and involves various voluntary and reflexive coordinated movements of muscles in the mouth, tongue, throat and esophagus. As a result a thorough understanding of this complex anatomy is required to arrive at a diagnosis and formulate a treatment plan.  Often times flexible laryngoscopy is performed in the office to gain an appropriate understanding of the patient’s swallowing function and determine if there is any anatomic or neurologic abnormality.  Once this is done, swallowing studies may be scheduled such as a barium esophogram or modified barium swallow study (MBSS) to further evaluate the cause of a patient’s swallowing dysfunction.