The muscles of the jaw, face and tongue may have been weakened by the Parkinson's, which in turn affects the control a person may have over their bite. Opening and closing lips becomes a difficulty.
After all, try this experiment on yourself – Open your mouth and try to swallow. Not easy, comfortable or even possible. Got the idea? This is what the Parkinson's sufferer has to go through 24/7. The weakened muscles and loss of control of the function of the muscles is the reason.
So it is important to understand that everyone has difficulty swallowing if they cannot close their lips.
If a person cannot chew their food adequately – due to loss of muscle control or poor dentures - it will cause problems. Some particles of food are swallowed easily but some may remain in the mouth. They are unaware that they have more food to swallow and as a result could choke. Food remaining in the mouth can be the cause of many other problems.
Often the tongue bunches up in Parkinson’s disease and this can cause food to be pushed out through or stick behind the teeth instead of passing down to the next stage of the digestive process. Take small mouthfuls!
Parkinson’s may also affect the numerous other muscles that are involved so naturally in the swallowing process. Naturally that is, for a non-sufferer.
It could give the impression that the sufferer has had sufficient. In this case, his unfinished food may be removed and / or he may not have eaten enough.
The length of time taken to eat makes hot tasty food change its taste and appearance, neither of which is appetizing.