Unit 2 - Care and nutrition (e-book)
Lesson 2.2. Management of oropharyngeal dysphagia. Physiotherapy a Speech-language therapy
2.2.4. Exercises for cheek muscles
What is the exercise for cheek muscles?
Your cheek muscle workouts will be determined
by the nature of your swallowing problem. You might have trouble with
the first step of swallowing, before the food stuff leaves your
mouth, for example. If this is the case, training the muscles in this
area may be beneficial.
How can we do it?
These exercises can be done in your hospital room or at home. You can usually do these
exercises on your own, but you can also work with a health expert.
Among the exercises for strengthening the cheek muscles are:
Filling the cheeks with air and retracting them,
Moving air from one cheek to the other
Workouts that strengthened the tension in the cheek muscles (resistance attempt against the expansion of the cheek with a spatula placed in the vestibule).
These exercises are done a total of ten times.