Characteristics of oropharyngean air pressure, airflow in cleft palate patients

ABSTRACT

articulation disorders associated with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) in cleft palate patients are interested to clinicians particularly. The purpose of this study was to investigate mainly the oropharyngeal air pressure and overall air flow in cleft palate patients. The pressure - measuring catheter was positioned at the midportion of the oropharyngeal cavity with a facial mask. Test words were composed of 9 meaningless polysyllabic words and 17 meaningful words. Aerophone II and Nasometer II were used to measure peak air pressure, mean air pressure, maximum flow rate, volume, phonatory flow rate, nasalance. The data shows that airflow of the cleft palate patient group were higher than those of the control group. Intraoral air pressure of the cleft palate patient group was lower than those of the control group. The first vowel formant and first Bandwidths of the cleft palate patient group were higher than those of the control group.