Influence of Wearing a Hotz's Plate on the Occurrence of Compensatory Misarticulations

Report on an Investigation in Children with Clefts of the Hard and Soft Palate

Abstract

Originally the Hotz's plate was invented for patients with clefts of the lip and plate. At St. Mary's Hospital, children with clefts of the hard and soft palate also wear the Hotz's plate. To ascertain the influences on speech development through the use of the Hotz's plate before palatoplasty, we compared the differences in the rates of occurrence of compensatory misarticulation between groups with and without the Hotz's plate in children with clefts of the hard and soft palate. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The results indicated that the presence of velopharyngeal incompetence or an oronasal fistula after palatoplasty influences the occurrence of misarticulation.