Abstract
Glossectomy causes speech disability, chewing disability, bolus-forming disability, swallowing disability and so on, because of limited tongue movement after the operation. This paper presents the management of a glossectomy patient with prosthetic treatment, speech therapy and dysphagia rehabilitation.
The patient who had squamous cell carcinoma in the right side of the tongue underwent partial resection of the tongue without radiation therapy in 2003. A lower partial denture had been used before the operation but it no longer fitted after the operation and a new denture was needed. The patient underwent rehabilitation to improve his oral function including fabrication of a new lower partial denture, speech therapy and dysphagia rehabilitation. During the rehabilitation, treatment outcome was evaluated several times to be used for later treatment.
The treatment outcome was evaluated with patient’s subjective satisfaction and objective functional tests including speech intelligibility tests, palatography and maximum voluntary tongue pressure measurement. Speech intelligibility score was improved to more than 90% and maximum voluntary tongue pressure was higher than the average of healthy people of the same generation. Regardless of the remaining limitation of tongue movement, the more rehabilitation went on, the more the patient desired to improve oral function.
