Throat Tightness & Swallowing Problems – Causes & Easy Relief

Swallowing. That is what we do thousand times in every day and yet one of the most complex mechanics our body performs. And if you start sensing lump sensation in your throat or swallowing becomes challenging, it can be really scary. After this, when you go to the doctor, then at that point doctor's task is to safeguard life.

So in that point, life-threatening factors must be ruled out. After this, further examinations are likely to be conducted. But if nothing is explained in the situation, what needs to be done? In this video, we go through what structures you should know related to the swallowing.

And if no serious condition were not found in the background, then how could we easily alleviate the lump sensations and swallowing difficulties at home? Let's start with the big picture. What kind of structures are behind the swallowing? And then we dwell into these factors in more detail.

If you want to jump straight to the specific context, use the timestamps below. From the hyoid bone, the muscle groups extend towards the jaw as well as downwards, which helps move the tongue and floor of the mouth. And it will going to assist also the movement of the hyoid bone. During the food-chewing phase, among other things, the cheek muscle, pukkinator, and the circular mouth muscle, orbicularis oris, push food between our teeth for the grinding.

In addition to this, we have tongue muscles that help push food towards the throat. The neck muscle helps transport the food directly downwards and keep the cervical spine firmly in place while the food is being transported. Why these structures might start to tighten in abnormal way? Well, let's first consider the impact of the posture to the swallowing.

First, take really slumped posture, push your jaw far forward and collect little saliva in your mouth and swallow. Think about the sensations during the swallowing and how the saliva moves downwards. Then take more slightly upright posture and do the same. Saliva into the mouth and swallow.

Did the change in posture affect the swallowing sensations? If you start zipping water from the bad posture or you feel that something gets stuck, then yes, posture matters. Another factor may be the stress. If the body is overactive and the nervous system is all the time in flight or fight state, then that point the muscle tension is more strongly present.

When the muscles squeeze structures tightly, then during that point relaxation is far from everything what is being performed. Cleansing teeth during the day and the night. This is a quite broad topic. So if you wish you can check the video down in the description.

There will be a recommended video for you about the bruxism. Hydration is also important. If the throat is dry, then swallowing becomes challenging. You can demonstrate this by putting a lot of dry crackers in your mouth and then when there is not enough of the saliva, then swallowing those crackers becomes really difficult.

How could we test the structures to figure out what is the cause in the swallowing challenge? Well great. Now we're going to start focusing on that and beginning with the tongue. Lightly separate your teeth and first push your tongue to the left outside of your upper molars.

From there slowly glide your tongue across the front of the teeth on the right side and try to sense any point where the contact with the teeth weakens. Then start moving your tongue from the right to the left again, gliding the tip of the tongue outside the tooth row. Repeat the same pattern also on the lower teeth. If at any point during the glide you notice that the contact with the teeth clearly weakens, then in that section something is really tightening either the tongue structures or in floor of the mouth.

If you want to easily stretch the tongue structures, then slightly open your mouth, push your tongue out in the direction where you sense the tightness and hold for five seconds. A short break and again push your tongue towards the tight direction. This exercise can be done three to six times before eating. In those kind of cases, this helps meals go easier downwards.

Which structures should be recognized above the hyoid bone? There you are going to find two bellied muscles of the mouth floor, musculus digastricus, the broad mouth floor muscles, musculus mylohyoideus, and the jaw, tongue, and hyoid muscle, musculus geniohyoid. The jaw, tongue, and hyoid muscle can be only accessed from inside the mouth. Push a clean index finger directly downwards behind your front teeth on inside of the tooth row.

Swallow and you will going to feel the muscle group tensing up. Test the muscle group from the left behind of the front teeth and from the right. Which side is the worst in terms of the tenderness and you can gently press it for a gentle stretch. If you have a strong lateral movement or if you have long nails, then the mucous membranes may not be liking it.

So in those cases, just pressing the muscle should be sufficient. The broad muscle floor muscle spans from the front edge to the back edge of the jaw and it feels about two thirds of the jaw's depth. So this muscle group extends a long way under the jaw. Here you can place your elbow under the table.

Lightly curve your thumb on the side that you are working and start from the front edge, going through the inner outside of the jaw. If there is a clear asymmetries or significant tenderness present, then these points can be gently worked for one minute. The two-bellied muscle of the mouth floor is easy to find by placing your fingers behind the big bony bump behind the ear and moving behind the vertical part of the jaw. When you make a light swallowing, you will going to notice the muscle group moving against your fingers.

Then relax your mouth. Curl your thumb and start pressing the structures at 45 degree angle upwards towards the center of the head. Here you can do light circular movement and it will going to relieve the tension in the muscle group structure. The head nodding muscle or sternocleidomastoid keeps our head in place when the swallowing happens.

And you can easily find it like this. Place your fingers on the same bony bump behind the ear and descend just below it. When you do light tilt your head towards the fingers, you will going to notice the muscle group activating. For this reason, tilt your head slightly to the opposite side and then slowly glide the muscle group backwards with rotational movement with your fingers.

Repeat the examination of these muscles and the tender spot on both sides. Treat the worst tender spots and see what changes in the swallowing. Put a short song in the background and go for it so that you won't be provoking resting pain at night. If you want to know easy instructions for the massage in chewing muscles, then click here.