My mum also has problems with swallowing and after she drinks she coughs a fair bit, tablets are difficult and sometimes food gets stuck and it's like she is choking. I was very concern a few times as the food wouldn't shift and it took what seemed like ages for her to regurgitate it. I spoke with mum's GP who thought the best place to start was with a speech therapist less invasive and she carried out tests with mum's swallowing and was satisfied that all the above problems was due to the dementia, brain failing to send the correct messages needed to swallow, her major concern was with the fluids as it could go into her lungs and cause pneumonia, mum had to have a thickener added to all fluids and her food finely chopped. Sometime later the district dementia nurse came to visit she stopped the thickener, her reason been the added thickener didn't taste at all good and why deny her the pleasure of her cuppa, which she does really enjoy, she said, let nature take it's coarse and the GP agreed with her, so it was stopped.I wish you and your mum all the very best and hope things are sorted real soon.