Ampcare, LLC

🚘Change the course of your patient's dysphagia therapy with Ampcare!

Your patients deserve MORE than questionably effective, time-consuming therapy & an instrumental report that shows slow or minimal progress.

Ampcare's Effective Swallowing Protocol (ESP) helps you get real results & greater gains in less time.

How??
⭐️Ampcare ESP is a protocol that combines NMES with a resistive exercise & a restorative posture device.

⭐️Using the science of perturbation, Ampcare ESP speeds up airway closure time, thus reducing the chances of aspiration.

⭐️Ampcare’s ESP creates the most effective, effortful swallowing exercise for your patient.

⭐️ESP utilizes the principles of neuroplasticity: specificity, repetition, and difficulty (resistance).

If you're TIRED of guessing what you should do to help your patients see REAL results, then join the thousands of SLPs who are leveling up their therapy skills with Ampcare!

🔗Vist https://swallowtherapy.com/get-certified/ to check out our training options!

What exactly is neural plasticity?

According to Kleim & Jones (2008), in their well-known article -- Principles of Experience-Dependent Neural Plasticity: Implications for Rehabilitation After Brain Damage -- it is defined as, "the mechanism by which the brain encodes experience and learns new behaviors. It is also the mechanism by which the damaged brain re-learns lost behavior in response to rehabilitation."

🧠They continue to state that, "the existing data strongly suggest that neurons, among other brain cells, possess the remarkable ability to alter their structure and function in response to a variety of internal and external pressures, including behavioral training.

🧠"By understanding the basic principles of neural plasticity that govern learning in both the intact and damaged brain, identification of the critical behavioral and neurobiological signals that drive recovery can begin."

🧠Swipe through the graphics to read about each of the 10 Principles of Experience-Dependent Neural Plasticity and how Ampcare utilizes them in the Effective Swallowing Protocol.

Get your hands on the protocol today by signing up for our training! https://swallowtherapy.com/get-certified/

Do you ever feel like you've endured the same hour of therapy over & over with a patient and you're seeing the same result: not much improvement?

You're not alone.

Traditional dysphagia therapy simply doesn't get the outcomes you or your patients deserve. And that's IF you've got a recent instrumental to guide you AND if you're using impairment-specific exercises.

You and your patients deserve better. But it's not your fault. It's what we're all taught in grad school and you're doing the best you can with what you've got to work with.

What if we could give you something better to work with?

Ampcare's Effective Swallowing Protocol gets REAL results for patients and helps you to have REAL fulfillment in your work.

Get Ampcare-certified and start getting the outcomes you and your patients deserve today at SwallowTherapy.com/training

The history of NMES is interesting at the very least..

In 46 AD Torpedo fish (electric rays) were used to treat pain. Yes, really!

Galvani (an Italian physician, physicist, biologist, and philosopher, who discovered animal electricity) discovered he could stimulate a frog with a charged piece of metal, but was unable to sustain stimulation in the 1700s.

In the 1800s, the first research on identified motor points was introduced.

In the 1950s, Osborne proved he could slow down disuse atrophy by utilizing NMES on patients in a straight leg cast, on crutches for 6 weeks following hip fracture. Patients were stimulating muscle x3/day, no other exercise.

Dr. Lucinda Baker and team released a meta-analysis of data from 1951-2000 on NMES titled Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation, A Practical Guide (4th Ed.).

OT and PT have been using NMES since the 1950s and it was introduced into the SLP world in 2001. So, if you're not using NMES yet, let's get you up to speed sans frogs and fish!

We do a deep dive into ALL things NMES, history and present, what to do and what NOT to do when using NMES. We ensure you not only understand the WHY but also the HOW of NMES. And most importantly, we ensure you know how to get REAL results for your patients with dysphagia.

Visit https://swallowtherapy.com/get-certified/ to get certified in the Ampcare Effective Swallow Protocol!

🙌 THESE are the stories we live for!

🫶 Stories of liberation and freedom from restrictive diets and feeding tubes.
🫶 Stories of patients getting a little piece of normal back.
🫶 Stories of NPO to functional swallows.
🫶 Stories of success and fulfillment for the SLP.

Ampcare is simply the vehicle that facilitates stories like these. The SLPs who provide their expert care and evidence-based treatment for these patients... they're the real heroes of the story.

If you're ready to bring triumphs like this one to your patients, we'd love to help you!

SwallowTherapy.com/training will give you the option to get Ampcare Certified and start seeing results like these with your patients!

We know, it's pretty shocking at first...

But we should talk about updating dysphagia therapy practices!

Research has shown that Ampcare's Effective Swallow Protocol (ESP) recruits more of the muscle fibers that are utilized in swallowing and often atrophy in the acute phase of illness or events that impair swallowing (i.e. CVA, intubation, surgery, or any event that would leave a patient NPO or with minimal swallowing activity).

It also has shown that patients who receive traditional dysphagia therapy demonstrate slower improvements than those receiving therapy utilizing Ampcare's ESP.

Patients receiving ESP demonstrate FASTER and GREATER improvements overall.

Take a look for yourself! You can gain access to all of the research articles below and more at SwallowTherapy.com.

✨Martindale N, Stephenson J, & Pownall S. (2019). Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Plus Rehabilitative Exercise as a Treatment for Dysphagia in Stroke and Non-Stroke Patients in an NHS Setting: Feasibility and Outcomes. Geriatrics, (4), 53:1-17.

✨Sproson L, Pownall S, Enderby P & Freeman J. (2018). Combined electrical stimulation and exercise for swallow rehabilitation post-stroke: a pilot randomized control trial. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 53(2): 405-417.

✨Watts C. R. (2013). Measurement of hyolaryngeal muscle activation using surface electromyography for comparison of two rehabilitative dysphagia exercises. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 94(12), 2542–2548.

✨Campbell R, McAdoo P, & Polansky R Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) to the Laryngeal Elevator Musculature Compared to Traditional Dysphagia Therapy Without NMES. Presented at UK Swallowing Research Group, London, England, 2010.

👏We see you beaming with pride!! As you should! Our jobs are tough and sometimes it can feel like an uphill battle, so we're celebrating those wins with you!

Here's the deal...

We know SLPs are doing the very best job they can, using the tools in their toolbox... We just want to give you a better tool and more wins!

Ampcare's Effective Swallowing Protocol (ESP) utilizes the principles of neuroplasticity and exercise science to create a WINNING dysphagia therapy.

🪄Is it a magic wand? Absolutely not.

When used correctly on the appropriate patients, ESP delivers faster results & greater long-term gains than traditional dysphagia therapy.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation should create a strong (but not painful) muscle contraction that some patients just can't achieve on their own.

ESP produces greater muscle involvement through resistance to close the airway. This results in FASTER closure times and less opportunity for aspiration.

We could talk ALL day about how it feels, the results you'll achieve, and how grateful your patients will be...

But we'd rather show you!

Join us at an upcoming course (or DM us to set one up for your facility) to try ESP for yourself!

Would you assume:
a. the vagus nerve
b. the auditory nerve
c. the trigeminal nerve
d. I let the cranial nerve info fall out of my memory as soon as I passed the test in A&P...

If you guessed C, the Trigeminal Nerve, you'd be correct!

But if you said D, we've got ya covered!

The Trigeminal Nerve (aka Cranial Nerve V) is responsible for...
✨sensory to the face
✨motor to the muscles of mastication
✨motor to the palate (tensor veli palatini)
✨motor to the pharynx

This critical cranial nerve has three branches and is said to be the most complex of the cranial nerves.

If you see a patient who has some of the impairments listed in the graphic, the Effective Swallowing Protocol Facial Placement might be exactly what you're looking for!

With the facial placement, you can stimulate the muscles of mastication to improve chewing, decrease oral pocketing, and prevent anterior loss of a bolus (or saliva.)

Ready to learn more? Join us for one of our upcoming courses to get certified in the best dysphagia treatment option you can find!

Have you worked with a patient for a few weeks and had a positive anticipation for the follow-up MBSS/FEES? You're SO excited and can't wait to celebrate their improvements and watch their hyoid spring up and laryngeal vestibule slam shut, eliminating any chance of aspiration. Only that's not what the study shows...

*Gasp* despite your best efforts and theirs, there's no appreciable improvement on the study to be found..

*Double gasp,* did they actually decline?

If this has happened to you, you're not alone. In fact, there's research that has shown this exact scenario, BUT you've got options!

If you're not using the Ampcare Effective Swallowing Protocol, you're missing out on HUGE gains for your patients!

Spronson et al. (2018) found FOIS levels at 1-month follow-up:
Traditional treatment: 57% improved
Ampcare ESP group: 75% improved

The same study found SWAL-QOL scores at 1-month follow-up:
Traditional treatment: 42% improved
Ampcare ESP group: 100% improved

Another measurement used for the study, Pen-Asp Scale, revealed:
Traditional treatment: 17% improved
Ampcare ESP group: 58% improved

The science supports the Effective Swallow Protocol every time.

What would these improvements mean for your patients?
And what would this success mean for your gratification as an SLP, knowing that you have the expertise and now the tool to be the hero your patients need?!

Visit https://swallowtherapy.com/get-certified/ to get the resources you and your patients deserve!

FALSE: Recruitment patterns with NMES are the REVERSE of that through exercise

🌟Type IIb fibers are first to contract as the motor neuron for these fibers is larger
and has a lower depolarization threshold.
🌟Type IIb fibers, therefore, respond sooner to electrical current when exposed.

Using NMES at the same time as performing voluntary exercise is an ideal way to maximize our therapeutic impact by taking advantage of this recruitment phenomenon seeing that
swallowing musculature has a high overall percentage of type II fibers.

If muscle fibers and types and "depolarization" and "metabolic fatigue" sound like French to you, not to worry! Our training tackles all of the mystifying information and helps you develop a solid foundation of knowledge in this subject area. We all know that we have to understand the WHY behind our therapy, but so many SLPs have little understanding of the HOW!

Totally not your fault though, this stuff just isn't taught in a basic dysphagia grad school course. And you really can't know what you don't know, right?

Well, now that you know what you don't know, we're here to help you fill in the missing info!

Visit https://swallowtherapy.com/get-certified/ to see our upcoming training options and keep the learning going!

Do you ever feel like you've endured the same hour of therapy over & over with the same patient and you're seeing the same result: not much improvement?

You're not alone.

Traditional dysphagia therapy doesn't get the outcomes you or your patients deserve. And that's IF you've got the most recent instrumental to guide you AND if you're using impairment-specific exercises.

You and your patients deserve better. But it's not your fault. It's what we're taught in grad school and you're doing the best you can with what you've got to work with.

What if we could give you something better?

Ampcare's Effective Swallowing Protocol gets REAL results for patients and helps you to have REAL fulfillment in your work.

Get Ampcare Certified and start getting the outcomes you and your patients deserve today at SwallowTherapy.com/training