How Do You Do a Water Swallow Test

Place the patient in a resting position, and wet the inside of the patient’s mouth with cold water. Instruct him/her to repeatedly swallow air, and monitor the number of swallows achieved. Three or more dry swallows within 30 seconds is considered normal.

How do you perform a swallow test?

A swallow test is usually carried out by a speech and language therapist (SLT) and can give a good initial assessment of your swallowing abilities. The SLT will ask you to swallow some water. The time it takes you to drink the water and the number of swallows required will be recorded.

How accurate is a swallow study?

Conclusions. There is good evidence that clinical swallow assessment is a reasonably accurate test for aspiration in dysphagic patients, with an overall summary sensitivity of 71% and specificity of 76%, when compared with the video fluoroscopic swallow study test.