舌接触補助床の適応と有効性について

抄録

This article summarizes a current consensus about clinical managements for dysphagia with palatal augmentation prosthesis （PAP） in Japan. These days, clinical managements for dysphagia with PAP increased not only in post head and neck cancer patients but also in the patients associate with motility disturbance of tongue, such as cerebrovascular and neurogenic diseases.
With PAP in place, majority experience decreased oral transit time and reduced oral residue. These are the results of improvements of tongue-to-palate contacts pressure and duration, which cause better bolus manipulation and transport. Furthermore, other effects of decreased pharyngeal transit time and reduced pharyngeal residue could be observed in the patients with reduced tongue base to post pharyngeal wall contacts. As the same biomechanical effect of effortful swallow, emphasizing tongue-to-palate contact with PAP is likely to lead larger movement amplitudes in the posterior tongue and higher pharyngeal pressure.
In the strategy of PAP intervention, we also need to know the limitation of its effects and cooperate with Speech-language pathologists and other specialists.