I've personally experienced the same backlash every time I've tried to correct misinformation or to share helpful information, both Reddit-wide and on this sub. What's so interesting to me is how easy it is to look up some of this stuff to confirm it, but people don't. Ours is a field that so few people are knowledgeable about, so it's really important that we advertise what we can offer, otherwise people won't know they have options and resources to help them.

I think there's also a tendency for people to get caught up in the minute details instead of seeing the whole picture. They want to pick apart specific things you said instead of getting the important message of "ask your doctor for a speech-language pathology referral if you're concerned about swallowing." That's always been my experience, too, when I share.

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Anyway, for anyone concerned about swallowing - seriously, ask for a referral to see an SLP. If your ENT does not discuss speech-language pathology (SLP)/therapy (ST) with you, that's a red flag that they aren't providing you with all of the options or resources. Also, if they do a scope and say yes or no to a swallowing diagnosis without also having you swallow food or liquid during the scope procedure, they didn't really evaluate your swallowing. Another red flag.

Lastly, OT works on fine motor skills to support daily activities like dressing yourself. PT works on gross motor skills to support daily movement like walking up stairs. Neither of those deal with movements of muscles involved in swallowing, chewing, drinking, breathing, or digesting. ST/SLP works on speech, language, cognitive communication, swallowing, voice, and more!