Effects of jaw opening exercise on aspiration in stroke patients with dysphagia: a pilot study.
Dong-Hwan Oh, Jung-Hee Won, Young-A Kim and 1 others
PMID 29184295WHAT IT FOUND
In three stroke patients, jaw-opening exercise plus usual swallowing therapy was followed by lower aspiration scores.
All also had oral facial muscle massage, palatal bowing stimulation, laryngeal movement, and tongue exercises, and there was no control group, so this cannot show the jaw exercise worked.
Key findings
01Subject 1's penetration-aspiration scale score decreased from 7 to 5, Subject 2's from 6 to 4, and Subject 3's from 7 to 6 with liquid type.
02All subjects performed jaw opening exercise 5 days a week for 4 weeks and also received conventional dysphagia treatment, including oral facial muscle massage, palatal bowing stimulation, laryngeal movement, and tongue exercises, 30 minutes, 5 times per week for 4 weeks.
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What it does not show
Only 3 subjects were included, so the score changes cannot be taken as evidence that the exercise works. All subjects received conventional dysphagia treatment at the same time, so the study cannot tell whether jaw opening exercise or usual therapy produced the changes. There was no control group, no random allocation, and no blinding described. The outcome was only aspiration measured on the penetration-aspiration scale; other swallowing functions were not assessed. The paper does not report follow-up after 4 weeks, so it says nothing about lasting benefit. The paper does not report dropouts or adverse events.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that jaw opening exercise reduces aspiration. The lower scores occurred after 4 weeks in only 3 subjects, and all subjects also received conventional dysphagia treatment, including oral facial muscle massage, palatal bowing stimulation, laryngeal movement, and tongue exercises, so the study cannot separate the effect of the jaw exercise.