title: Articulation and oromyofunctional behavior in children seeking orthodontic treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this controlled study is to document articulation and oromyofunctional behavior in children seeking orthodontic treatment. In addition, relations between malocclusions, articulation, and oromyofunctional behavior are studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 56 children seeking orthodontic treatment. The control group, consisting of 54 subjects matched for age and gender, did not undergo orthodontic intervention. To determine the impact of the occlusion on speech, the Oral Health Impact Profile was used. Speech characteristics, intelligibility and several lip and tongue functions were analyzed using consensus evaluations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant impact of the occlusion on speech and more articulation disorders for/s,n,l,t/were found in the subjects seeking orthodontic treatment. Several other phenomena were seen more often in this group, namely more impaired lip positioning during swallowing, impaired tongue function at rest, mouth breathing, open mouth posture, lip sucking/biting, anterior tongue position at rest, and tongue thrust. Moreover, all children with a tongue thrust showed an anterior tongue position at rest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children seeking orthodontics have articulatory and oromyofunctional disorders. To what extent a combined orthodontic and logopaedic treatment can result in optimal oral health (i.e. perfect dentofacial unit with perfect articulation) is subject for further multidisciplinary research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Van Lierde
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luyten
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'haeseleer
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Van Maele
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Becue
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fonteyne
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corthals
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Pauw
mesh_terms: D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003725:Dental Articulators; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008046:Lip / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009055:Mouth / Q000503:physiopathology; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000379:methods*; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D066229:Speech Sound Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology; D014059:Tongue / Q000503:physiopathology; D014061:Tongue Habits
keywords: malocclusion; oromyofunctional behavior; orthodontics; speech