title: Long-term effects of palatal plate therapy on oral motor function in children with Down syndrome evaluated by video registration.
abstract: Oral motor function was evaluated after 4 years of palatal plate therapy in nine children with Down syndrome (DS); 11 children with DS constituted the control group. During the treatment period all children had orofacial physiotherapy with their speech pathologist. An extraoral examination was performed, as was a video registration of the face. Nine different variables showing positions of the lips, tongue, and facial expression were examined. Children in the palatal plate group (n = 9) had significantly more rounding lips during speech (P< 0.05) than children in the control group (n = 11). The active variables describing normal muscle tension were diagnosed to constitute 81.0% +/- 11.0% of the registered video time in the palatal plate group, compared with 68.2% +/- 22.5% in the control group. Statistically significant differences were found between the groups in the summary variables describing an inactive open mouth and inactive tongue protrusion (P< 0.01). The results indicate that palatal plate therapy has a long-term effect on oral motor function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Kerstin.Carlstedt@ofa.ki.se
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Carlstedt
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Henningsson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dahllöf
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003819:Denture Bases; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005152:Facial Muscles / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008046:Lip / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D020247:Myofunctional Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017289:Orthodontic Appliances, Functional; D009989:Orthotic Devices; D013060:Speech; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014059:Tongue / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014741:Video Recording