2002 Volume 22 Issue 1 Pages 31-45
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to compare the contact patterns of tongue-to-palate and alveolar or maxillary dentures in edentulous patients with and without their dentures during the production of the [ta], [ki] and [ra] sounds. Methods
The subjects consisted of 10 edentulous adults (3 men and 7 women) for the [ta] and [ki] pronunciation trials and 6 edentulous adults (2 men and 4 women) for the [ra] pronunciation trials. Artificial palates made of black vinyl covering the palate and the alveolar ridge of the maxilla were coated with white alginate powder and were then inserted into the mouths of the subjects. After a pronunciation of the test sounds, the tongue contact areas on the artificial palates were demonstrated by a change in color from white to black wherever the powder had been moistened.
An image processor system was employed for averaging five samples of the same sound for each subject. The averaged pattern of each subject's palatograms was then converted to the standardized dental arch form, added, and stored. Seventy percent of each subject's common parts were extracted from the combined palatograms of the same sound. Results and Conclusion
On comparing the contact patterns of the edentulous stage (E) with the contact patterns of the denture-wearing stage (D) in both [ta] and [ki] sounds, the entire contact area of the E was found to be wider than that of the D (significant difference p<0.05 for [ki]), However, for the [ra] sound, the entire contact area of the E was found to be narrower than that of the D.
In the [ta] and [ki] sounds, the contact area anterior to the first premolar of the E was narrower than that of D; however, the contact area posterior to the first premolar of the E was wider than that of D.
