Role of Speech Aid Prosthesis as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Aid for Velopharyngeal Insufficiency Defect: A Case Report

ABSTRACT@#Soft palate tumors pose the challenge during reconstructive and rehabilitating procedures. Surgical resection of these tumors leads to velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). The primary effects of VPI are hypernasality and air-flow escape, while the secondary effects are abnormalities in speech articulation. Surgical revision along with speech therapy is a common approach to the treatment of VPI. Prosthetic management by means of speech aid prosthesis helps to reduce resonance, nasal emission and consonants errors. This clinical report describes the different stages of rehabilitation of velopharyngeal insufficiency defect following resection of malignant melanoma of left posterior alveolar ridge and soft palate. The speech aid prosthesis helped to rehabilitate the velopharyngeal insufficiency defect and aided in the diagnosis of extent of speech function improvement by perceptual and objective methods.

Fabrication of palatal lift prosthesis for a patient with palatal defect / 대한치과보철학회지

This report is a case of 38-year old female patient who had a chief complaint about having pronounciation disorder after going under mass excision due to mucoepidermoid carcinoma. She was referred to department of prosthodontics, Yonsei university. Palatal lift prosthesis was fabricated which was then relined with tissue conditioner. Evaluations on phonetics and swallowing were done and improvements were shown. Tissue conditioner was replaced with heat polymerizing resin and the patient was satisfied with the results of treatment.

Successful and rapid response of speech bulb reduction program combined with speech therapy in velopharyngeal dysfunction: a case report / 대한악안면성형재건외과학회지

Velopharyngeal dysfunction in cleft palate patients following the primary palate repair may result in nasal air emission, hypernasality, articulation disorder and poor intelligibility of speech. Among conservative treatment methods, speech aid prosthesis combined with speech therapy is widely used method. However because of its long time of treatment more than a year and low predictability, some clinicians prefer a surgical intervention. Thus, the purpose of this report was to increase an attention on the effectiveness of speech aid prosthesis by introducing a case that was successfully treated. In this clinical report, speech bulb reduction program with intensive speech therapy was applied for a patient with velopharyngeal dysfunction and it was rapidly treated by 5months which was unusually short period for speech aid therapy. Furthermore, advantages of pre-operative speech aid therapy were discussed.