Page 4 - Polite-yawning_manual for SLPs

THE ROLE OF THE SENSE OF SMELL/OLFACTIONIn laryngectomees, the sense of smell is impaired, because breathing through the stoma precludes nasal airflow. As shown in slide 10 and further, a nasal airflow can be re-established by using the polite-yawning technique, because that provokes a negative pressure in the nasopharynx. But before teaching this technique to the patient, it is advisable to test the sense of smell at baseline to be able to document the success of the method.