Swallowing Exercises, For Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Starting Radiation Treatment

Radiation treatment to the head and neck area can cause many side effects. Some of the side effects can result in short and long term swallowing problems. There are five exercises shown in this video. These exercises help to strengthen and stretch the muscles in your mouth and throat. These are: 1. The effortful swallow, 2. The Masako Technique 3. Jaw Range of Motion Exercise 4. Tongue Range of Motion Exercise 5. The Supraglottic Swallow. Exercise 1 and 2 help to strengthen your throat muscles, exercises 3 and 4 help to stretch the jaw and tongue muscles. Exercise 5 helps to protect your airway when swallowing. To read the pamphlet on Swallowing Exercises click here: Thank you to the Cancer Education Department and the Cancer Education Video Awards Competition for supporting the creation of this resource. Thank you to a Princess Margaret Head and Neck cancer survivor for his participation in this video. Thank you to Andrea Gomes, Speech Language Pathologist for providing content expertise Visit us at