ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of skeletal Class III malocclusion in mixed dentition on speech articulation and to look for which factors lead to the speech errors. METHODS: Thirty-eight children with skeletal Angle Ill malocclusion in mixed dentition were selected as a sample group and 40 children with normal occlusion in mixed dentition as a control group. Two phoneticians evaluated their articulations and wrote down error phonemes respectively. The correlation analysis was undertaken between the number of errors and the measurements of patients' cephalometry. RESULTS: The number of errors were correlated significantly with overbite, UI-LI, OBJ (OB+OJ) and TD-PW. CONCLUSION: There is articulatory malfunction in the majority of skeletal Angle III malocclusion patients in mixed dentition. Articulatory malfunction is related to the position of incisors and the tongue.
