Using the speech aid for treatment of velopharyngeal incompetency in incomplete cleft palate: a case report

ABSTRACT

soft palate and pharynx in closing and opening the velopharyngeal port to the required degree. In normal speech, various muscles of palate and pharynx function as sphincter and occlude the oropharynx from the nasopharynx during the production of oral consonant sounds. Inadequate velopharyngeal function caused by neurologic disorder - cerebral apoplexy, regressive diseases-disseminated sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, congenital deformity-cleft palate, cerebral palsy and etc. may result in abnormal speech characterized by hypernasality, nasal emission and decreased intelligibility of speech due to weak consonant production. In our study, we constructed speech aids prosthesis-Speech bulb in the incomplete cleft palate VPI patient with hypernasality and assessed velopharyngeal function with nasometer which can evaluate the speech characteristics objectively.