title: Structure of a New Palatal Plate and the Artificial Tongue for Articulation Disorder in a Patient with Subtotal Glossectomy.
abstract: A palatal augmentation prosthesis (PAP) is used to facilitate improvement in the speech and swallowing functions of patients with tongue resection or tongue movement disorders. However, a PAP's effect is limited in cases where articulation disorder is severe due to wide glossectomy and/or segmental mandibulectomy. In this paper, we describe speech outcomes of a patient with an articulation disorder following glossectomy and segmental mandibulectomy. We used a palatal plate (PP) based on a PAP, along with an artificial tongue (KAT). Speech improvement was evaluated by a standardized speech intelligibility test consisting of 100 syllables. The speech intelligibility score was significantly higher when the patient wore both the PP and KAT than when he wore neither (p＝0.013). The conversational intelligibility score was significantly improved with the PP and KAT than without PP and KAT (p＝0.024). These results suggest that speech function can be improved in patients with hard tissue defects with segmental mandibulectomy using both a PP and a KAT. The nature of the design of the PP and that of the KAT will allow these prostheses to address a wide range of tissue defects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Pharmacology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Kozaki
authors.forename: Shigehisa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Konishi
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: Jitsuro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Tomoo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Onoda
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Nobuyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mizukawa
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kimata
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishizaki
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gofuku
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Shogo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minagi