A case of functional recovery for patient with disabilities to chewing and pronunciation

Abstract

We first examined by palatogram the speech articulation of a patient with chewing and articulation disorders. We then tried to recover chewing and articulation functions by applying gingivoplasty to the palate and adjusting the palatal surface of the maxillary complete denture. The patient visited our clinic with the main complaint of chewing and pronunciation difficulties due to the ill-fitting complete denture. After adjusting the denture by trailing its edge and applying tissue conditioning to the mucous membrane of the palates, we administered the treatment of upper and lower complete denture prostheses. Using palatogram, we closely examined the contact between the tongue and palate with the wax trial denture and determined the shape of the polished surface and the position of finish lines. The patient was able to articulately pronounce immediately after wearing a new denture thanks to the appropriately set finish lines and provision of S curve to the lingual flange. The resultant metal-based dentures presented high maintainability, stability, and good support . The patient echoed this; with the new well fitting dentures, he was able to speak and chew better.This was farther confirmed by the questionnaires on ingestible food, the score improving from 31.8 at the time of the initial diagnosis to 89.3 immediately after insertion of new dentures. Thus the oral environment was dramatically improved. The result suggests that the palatogram, which records the contact between tongue and palate, is a simple and useful diagnostic tool for evaluating the chewing and articulation functions of a patient with maxillary complete denture.