Which are the phases of eating and swallowing?

• A. Oral preparatory and pharyngeal only
• B. Oral preparatory, oral, oral propulsive, pharyngeal, and esophageal
• C. Digestive, absorptive, and elimination
• D. Rest, digestion, and excretion

Answer: (B)

Swallowing happens in a sequence of coordinated stages that move a food bolus from the mouth to the stomach. First, in the oral preparatory stage, food is chewed and mixed with saliva to form a cohesive bolus and to ready it for swallowing. Next is the oral stage, where the tongue propels the bolus posteriorly toward the oropharynx. Some models include an oral propulsive phase, emphasizing the continued posterior movement of the bolus by the tongue as it heads into the pharynx. Then comes the pharyngeal phase, triggered by the swallow reflex: the airway is protected as the larynx elevates and the epiglottis closes, while pharyngeal muscles push the bolus through the pharynx toward the esophagus. Finally, the esophageal phase uses peristaltic waves to transport the bolus down into the stomach. The other options either refer to general digestion processes or omit essential phases of swallowing, so they don’t accurately represent the sequence.