A simple, expeditious method for placement of thermoplastic impression material for speech aid prostheses

Abstract

The dental literature has discussed the attention to detail required when making impressions for speech aid prostheses, but many operators often do not capture all the patient’s soft and hard tissue details when making either preliminary or definitive impressions for frameworks, castings, and baseplates.1-3 In maxillofacial prosthetics, one responsibility of the clinician is the reestablishing of palatopharyngeal integrity and providing the potential for acceptable speech by generation of the speech aid prosthesis. Speech aid prostheses constructed for patients with soft palate defects must function in concert with soft palate tissues displaying considerable movement, yet the objective of obturation is to provide the ability to control nasal emission during speech and to prevent the leakage of material into the nasal passage during deglutition. The use of a 20-cc or 30-cc plastic disposable syringe (B-D 30 cc syringe, Becton-Dickson and Co., Franklin Lakes, N.J.), in conjunction with Iowa wax (Miner, Concorde, Calif.), modeling plastic and a custom tray with loops or mesh work is a simple procedure to ensure detailed final impressions when capturing soft palate defects on a consistent basis. Iowa wax can also be used to impress maxillary hard palate defects to generate the bulb portion of an obturator. The operator may also use a functional impression technique to allow the wax to flow to the pharyngeal walls. This article describes a simple procedures that can assist the dentist in routinely capturing soft palate anatomic defects when making final impressions for speech aid prostheses.