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Cant Open Mouth For Food. Diagnosed With Parkinsons. What Can Be Done?
Question: hi Doctor,
my mother is 76 and is diagnosed as a parkinson patient. She is now bedridden . She is now unable to open her mouth for tasking in food. What can I do .
my mother is 76 and is diagnosed as a parkinson patient. She is now bedridden . She is now unable to open her mouth for tasking in food. What can I do .
Hi XXXXXXX
Thanks for the query.
Since when is your mother not able to open her mouth ?
Are her hands and lower limbs more stiff than ever ?
Does she have any seizures ?
The difficulty in opening mouth could be attributed to severe mouth tremors which tightens the mouth muscles and makes it difficult to open.
It is possible that the medication effect may be wearing down due to various reasons. Sometimes the Levodopa drug effect can experience 'On and Off' phenomenon where the drug effect will be good and then low because of fluctuating drug levels. She may need another additional medicine like Ropinirole to prevent this phenomenon.
For now, she will need a stomach tube which will go from her mouth to her stomach. This can be bought from a Pharmacy called Ryle's tube. It can be inserted by a Doctor at any Clinic or Hospital and semi-solid food by grinding in mixer can be given through the tube as long as the jaw tightness lasts. But before that, kindly wait for a few hours to see if she is improving. If not, kindly take her to the Doctor.
I hope I have answered your query. I will be available to answer your follow up queries.
Wishing good health.
Regards,
Thanks for the query.
Since when is your mother not able to open her mouth ?
Are her hands and lower limbs more stiff than ever ?
Does she have any seizures ?
The difficulty in opening mouth could be attributed to severe mouth tremors which tightens the mouth muscles and makes it difficult to open.
It is possible that the medication effect may be wearing down due to various reasons. Sometimes the Levodopa drug effect can experience 'On and Off' phenomenon where the drug effect will be good and then low because of fluctuating drug levels. She may need another additional medicine like Ropinirole to prevent this phenomenon.
For now, she will need a stomach tube which will go from her mouth to her stomach. This can be bought from a Pharmacy called Ryle's tube. It can be inserted by a Doctor at any Clinic or Hospital and semi-solid food by grinding in mixer can be given through the tube as long as the jaw tightness lasts. But before that, kindly wait for a few hours to see if she is improving. If not, kindly take her to the Doctor.
I hope I have answered your query. I will be available to answer your follow up queries.
Wishing good health.
Regards,
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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