Speech patterns of edentulous patients and morphology of the palate in relation to phonetics

Abstract

T 1 n the production of speech sounds, the tongue contacts various portions of the teeth, the alveolar ridge, and the hard and soft palate. When these structures are covered or replaced by a denture, proprioceptive feedback may be changed. Therefore, phonetics may be affected by the presence of a denture. Most of the prosthodontic literature on phonetic research has been concerned with the positioning of the artificial teeth and the vertical dimension of occlusion.1-11 Little scientific study has been reported that relates the speech changes to the palatal contour of complete dentures.‘2-15 There are conflicting data on how denture wearers achieve speech improvement. AllenI stated that neglect of phonetics in complete denture construction may be attributed to the fact that edentulous patients tend to return to their normal speech patterns after insertion of dentures. The purpose of this study was to investigate ( 1) changes in the speech patterns of patients with new complete dentures before and at various times after insertion of the new dentures and (2) any relationship between speech production and the palatal contour of the denture.